D: The Dark Knight
by NeoShinigamiSama
Summary: Major AU setting. The year is 2406. Four hundred years after the terrible great war, mankind slowly recovers from vampire rule. However, the undead are not content to be beaten so easily. Yet humans could not have learned their secrets on their own.
1. Prologue: A World of Darkness

Author's Note: This isn't quite a VHD fanfic, but it certainly does fall under "bluntly inspired by/homage to".I wasn't too sure if this should be under fanfic or not, but hey, we'll see.Also, for the original format coding, and title graphics to the story, go to to the current homepage link in my profile. Oh, and this is book 1 of 6 planned. That said, on with the story.

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**Dhampir(Dam-peer) 1:** Half-damned; the child of a human and a cursed supernatural. Most often used in reference to the children of humans and vampires. **2:** Low born child of a supernatural union; filthy blood. Considered to be the most offensive of insults. 

**_Dunpeal_(Doon-peel) 1: **Half-dead; specific term referring to the child of a human and a vanpyr. Most often have near endless life spans, incredible strength, and known to have incredible unearthly beauty. Also known to have many serious ailments, such as anemia, photodermatosis, insanity, bloodlust, and heat syndrome. Notable weaknesses include iron.

**From the Ingrid New World English Dictionary, 2275 edition **

_**

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**__**Nightwalkers. Kindred. Kuei-Jin. Nosferatu. The Undead. All these names refer to the same race of beings. A species which feeds on blood and cannot die by age or mortal means. They are eternal in their lifespans, embracing darkness and shunning light. Yet despite all the names, in the end, they are all known to be a creature with only one word to describe them. ** _

**Vampires. **

**For countless centuries after the end of the Dark Ages, vampires hid themselves, for humanity had learned to fight back and almost destroyed the vampire race. They survived, grew again in secret numbers, and when the Great War broke out at the end of the twentieth century, they found their chance. Humanity was falling back into the dark ages, allowing the vampires to emerge once more and place themselves as the ruling species of Earth. **

**Rebellion and the overthrow of the vampire regime led to a revival of the human civilization. Mankind retook its place at the top, while the vampires, now driven back to the fringes of the world with their own engineered monstronsities, found that they were now fighting for survival and dominance. **

**After a century in exile, the vampires returned, working to retake their reign bit by bit. The nobles once more took up rule in small villages at first, but when they tried to reach out again, they discovered that the humans had formed a special caste which was dedicated to preventing such a tyranny from happening again; the Hunters. Werewolf Hunters, Wraith Hunters, Dragon Hunters, and the greatest class of all; the Vampire Hunters. These special soldiers knew the secrets of the vampires, able to fight them and kill the undead. **

**Yet, the humans could not have discovered these secrets on their own. Someone, or something, had helped them...**

* * *

The rumbling thunder echoed through the night air while terrible winds blew and lightning flashed. It was a horrible night to be out, but even so, at least one person braved the storm in search of someone. 

"Katie!"

A cold chill was in the air as the young man ran through the fields. A rifle was in his hands, brown hair blowing in the wind while he shifted his flashlight about in search of his younger sister. "Katie!" he cried out again. Only the howling winds answered him, and then a flash of lightning lit up the sky to reveal a shadowy figure standing in the distance. The young man turned his head toward that figure, now seeing two red points of light that vanished an instant later.

He ran over, dropping to the ground as he found a young girl lying on the ground. Two small puncture wounds were in the right side of her neck. She was still alive, breathing and with a pulse. The young man growled, slipped the strap of his rifle around his chest, then grunted while picking his sister up. "Hold on, Katie," he whispered as he ran toward the direction of their home. It didn't take much to figure out what had happened.

From in the distance, watching the young man flee, the owner of two glowing red eyes flashed a grin that revealed his elongated canines which were stained red. He raised a hand and wiped a bit of blood from on his chin. "Try to help her," he intoned sadistically while turning to depart. "The girl will belong to me, boy, and nothing can change that."


	2. Chapter 1: Hunter for Hire

The late afternoon air was a bit cold, a strong wind blowing about. Trees swayed while the fields billowed in the winds. No birds dared to fly out at this time of day, but the field was hardly empty.

Standing on the dirt road, the wind blowing through his brown hair, stood the young man named Daniel Ran. His blue eyes narrowed as he could hear the sound of an approaching engine. It was a distinct sound, one that wasn't often heard in these times since the Great War. Right hand gripping the stock of his rifle as he saw the oncoming figure, he raised his hand to flag down the traveler.

Coming to a halt, riding on a strangely designed jet black motorcycle, was a figure dressed in black. His head was covered by the black helmet and shield visor, while a black overcoat draped around his legs as he lifted up the control board of the machine and dismounted. Underneath, what could be seen of it at least, was a crimson bodysuit covered by shiny black sections of armor, while a thick armored vest covered his torso. A vicious looking golden gauntlet clad his left hand, most evident even when covered by the left sleeve of the overcoat.

The young man frowned as he nodded to the traveler. "I take it that you're a hunter," he stated, without any introduction or formalities. The traveler in black did not reply. "Well, are you?"

The glove clad right hand came up. Pushing open the shield visor, the drifter reveal his crimson eyes, but little else. They were filled with a cold sense of purpose, almost fluid and shifting like blood. "What if I am?" he finally said in response. His voice, while firm, was that of a youth no more than seventeen or eighteen at most.

Daniel breathed with relief. "Thank god," he said. "My name is Daniel Ran, I need your-"

"I don't have time to waste on silly boys and their hunts," the traveler in black hissed just before slapping down his visor. He slipped back onto his motorcycle, moving to start it up again, but he found that Daniel was grabbing him by the arm now. "What is it now?"

"This isn't a game!" Daniel growled. "My sister was bitten by a vampire, and if he's not killed, she'll become one herself!"

The drifter stopped just as he was about to restart his motorcycle. His right hand slowly lifting the visor again, he turned his gaze to Daniel, eyes narrowed. "A vampire?" he repeated softly. After a moment of hesitation, he dismounted once more and reached under the helmet to undo the straps before slipping it off. Pale blonde hair fell down, almost to his shoulders, but not quite. His skin was a bit pale, but not greatly so, and his hair came down over his ears to hide them. The drifter set his helmet on the left side handle piece of the control grip and locked his attention on the young man. "Who is this vampire?"

Daniel hesitated. No doubt, this man was a vampire hunter, but something felt so odd about him. He was dressed all in black and red, for one. In fact, the bodysuit wasn't all that was red, the inner lining of his coat was the same color. And then there were his eyes; they looked like the color of blood. He wasn't so sure that this was the person he should be talking to about his problems.

The traveler sighed while he watched the young man. "Are you going to tell me," he asked impatiently, "or should I continue on my way?"

"No!" Daniel exclaimed. He breathed in before telling his tale. "Two nights ago," he began, "my younger sister Catherine disappeared from our home. When I found her out in the fields, there were two bite marks in her neck, and I saw a man standing over her minutes before I reached her." He paused while trying to read the traveler's expressions. Impossible task, the blonde young man was completely neutral in his facial features. "We don't have much money, but we'll give you room and board if you accept the job."

The drifter didn't reply right away. He seemed to be looking off into the distance now, as if he was trying to find something. It was then, when his eyes went narrow, that his gaze returned to Daniel. "Who is this vampire that tainted your sister?"

Not exactly a statement of accepting the mission, but judging from the drifter's tone of voie, he was gong to take the job. "His name is Jonathan Tremere, he's been living in the area on and off for a couple centuries." Again, Daniel paused. "He's been gone the past five years, but about two weeks ago, the lights in the castle came on, and everyone knew he was back."

A nod. "Your sister is his first victim since, I take it," he said inquisitively, eyes narrowed in thought. After a moment, he mounted the motorcycle again and took his helmet from the control grip. After starting up the motorcycle, he slipped on his helmet before glancing to Daniel. "Get on," he ordered. "Unless you expect me to find your home on my own while you walk the whole way."

* * *

Tending to the grazing sheep, a young brunette woman looked up as she heard the approaching engine. It wasn't a sound she was expecting, and more surprising was when the source of that sound, a jet black motorcycle, drove up into the farm, ridden by a drifter in black and her younger brother. "Dan," she said as she walked over, eyes on the mysterious traveler. "Who's this?"

Daniel sighed as he got off the motorcycle and walked over to his older sister. "Iria, this is..." After realizing that he'd never gotten the hunter's name, Daniel looked back to his companion. "You never told me what to call you."

"D," was the single reply while the hunter pulled off his helmet and looked around at the farm. Mounted on the border fences were several metal objects that had thick cables running back into the house. No doubt they were barrier generators for keeping out the night life of the area. His own crimson eyes narrowed and returned focus to the Rans. "Your brother tells me that you're having problems with a local vampire named Tremere, and that you need a vampire hunter to handle him."

Iria Ran nodded slowly. There was an odd feeling about this blonde young man. His eyes colored like blood, his features making him look younger than he acted, and an air of deadly command. She already didn't like the chill that seemed to be around him. "Catherine has been sleeping all day since Daniel found her. She only wakes up at night, and eats very little."

The young hunter D only nodded while now walking toward the house. "I'll need to see her," he stated, the Rans following close behind him. When he looked back and saw the concerned looks on their faces, he sighed. This wasn't making his job any easier. "I have to determine just how much the vampire tainted her blood with his own."

He continued through the farm grounds, reaching the font door of the house and entering. His crimson eyes flashed momentarily, then, his nose sniffing the air, D walked toward a room at the back of the house. The door of that room was covered with various icons and religious symbols. When the two older Ran siblings approached from behind him, D glanced back. "Rather wide range of faiths your family has," he said calmly.

"We're taking any measure to keep Tremere from getting her," Iria replied. Her voice was trembling slightly, but she remained in control of her fear. Something about this young man was making her feel uneasy.

The young hunter frowned before he proceeded to remove the various ornaments. "These won't do a damn thing against a vampire," he explained before opening the door and looking inside. Lying on a bed was a young girl, about fourteen years old, who was sleeping soundly. Bark brown hair came down from her head, the same shade as her brother and older sister's own hair. D quietly walked into the room and knelt down beside the girl, now looking her over. The bite marks were still there on the right side of her neck, though they seemed to be healing. Her skin still was flushed with red, so she wasn't falling to the vampire taint. Good, that made his job less gruesome.

Those crimson eyes flashing over her, examining the girl carefully, D finally stood up and quietly walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. He was silent, glancing to the Rans, then gesturing that they would best move away from the room. "Your sister hasn't been tainted enough to worry much," he reported while walking into the main den of the house. He turned to face Daniel and Iria, eyes almost shining. "I need to know more about this Jonathan Tremere. Who is he, how long has he been residing in the area, and anything else you might know."

Daniel was the first to speak. "No one knows much about him," he began before now taking a seat. He nodded to Iria, who went to get them something to drink while he continued his explanation of the situation. "Supposedly, he's been around since before the War, so he'd be over four hundred years old."

There was no immediate response from D. He simply turned and headed back outside. There, he looked out and saw the bare signs of a castle in the distance. No doubt, that was where this vampire Tremere lived. "Four centuries old," he muttered to himself. "Undoubtedly powerful, but not near invincible."

"Not too unlike yourself."

D's eyes shifted toward the golden gauntlet on his left arm. Now was not the time for dealing with smart mouthed comments like that. "Mouth shut for now," he hissed before looking out and seeing a trio of men coming up the hillside. His eyes changed shape slightly, pupils now slit as his vision increased and he could make out details on this group. Two of them were armed while the third was a portly man with graying brown hair and a thick mustache. His eyes reverted back to normal as he heard Dan and Iria racing out of the house. No doubt, D surmised, that this visit was very unexpected and unwelcome.

"Mayor Rodham!" Dan exclaimed in greeting. He came to a halt as he saw the weapons of the two men flanking the mayor, eyes wide with worry. "May I ask-"

"Where's the girl?" the portly man asked in a firm voice. Already this was not going well. "Where is she, Daniel? You know that she has to be destroyed before she begins to prey on the village."

Eyes wide now with horror, Daniel shook his head violently. "No!" he yelled out. "She's still human, my sister isn't a threat to anyone!"

One of the armed men raised his rifle and aimed at Daniel. "Get out of the way and let us do what we came to do," he growled. The look in his eyes said he wouldn't think twice about firing at the young man.

Something cold pressed against his head. "I suggest you put that down," D's calm voice ordered. His right hand was holding a vicious looking handgun to the man's head, and from the various blinking lights and the very solid design of it, that gun could probably blow its target's head clean off. "Catherine Ran is being taken care of, there's no need for you to just walk in with the intent to kill her."

The mayor narrowed his eyes. "And just who are you?" he said in a demanding tone. Less than a minute after meeting this blonde stranger and already he didn't like him. Not only was he obviously an outsider, but he was already defying the authority of the village mayor. "And what gives you the right to be an expert in these matters?"

D was silent as he continued to hold his weapon against the first armed man's head. "Have your men drop their guns now," he stated, once more infinitely calm. To make his point, he pushed his own firearm deeper against the man's skull. "I mean it."

The first man dropped his weapon instantly. He could feel that deadly aura of command around this boy. The second armed man hesitated, but after D has turned his gaze toward him, he lowered his weapon. With the safety of his clients insured, D brought his handgun back, twirling it on his finger before slipping it into the folds of his coat.

His gaze shifted back to Rodham now. "I'm a hunter," D explained. "I've been hired to eliminated Jonathan Tremere and that's exactly what I'll do."

"Defeat the vampire?" Rodham scoffed. He obviously didn't believe it could be done. "You can't be older than sixteen, boy. Tremere will tear you apart without a second thought."

Those crimson eyes now flashed again. "And what do you think he will do to your village when he finds out you killed the girl he's marked for his bride?" D hissed. He could hear the gasps of Daniel and Iria. Apparently, they hadn't figured out why their younger sister was still alive. Best to continue letting this weasel of a man know what would happen. "He's marked her to be his property, and that means if you kill her, he'll raze your little hamlet to the ground in retaliation."

Rodham took a moment to think that over. The horrified look on his face was enough to let D know that the man had reconsidered his original assessment of the matter and solution. He was definitly wondering if he'd chosen the best course of action in the first place. "And what would you have me do?" Rodham asked. "If you can't kill the vampire, what then?"

Not an immediate response, but D slowly narrowed his eyes at the mayor. "Tremere isn't going to escape," he stated in a cold tone. "I'll kill him, and thus solve everyone's problem." He paused for a moment, now glancing to the mayor's companion guards. That gaze returned now to Rodham. "I suggest you sit in your little office and wait for me to do my job, because that's the only thing you can do to help the situation."

The mayor scowled, but turned to depart. His men flanking him, Rodham halted as the moved to leave and turned back to glare at D. "For their sake, you had best not fail," the man coldly hissed. "If you do, all three of them will be executed."

The three men left, leaving Daniel and Iria to stare in horror while D's face was stoic. After a long moment, he turned back toward the house, clenching his left hand tightly. Once inside, he halted in the living room and waited for Daniel and Iria. "Don't worry about him and his men," he stated as he turned the face them once the two older Rans had joined him. Daniel was already falling back into a chair while Iria leaned against a wall, rubbing her temples. No doubt, they were worried about the mayor's threat. "I don't think he's stupid enough to try and uphold his words."

"Easy for you to say," Iria snapped. She hesitated in continuing. Her anger at Rodham was getting the better of her, it wouldn't help to go off on the one person who was trying to help them. "I'm sorry, it's just that-"

D shook his head. Now was not the time for apologies, it was time for planning. "If I might find a place to put my belongings for the time being," he said while gesturing his gaze toward the door.

"Oh!" Daniel exclaimed as he stood up. "I'm sorry. This way." He led D to a room at the end of the hall, not far from Catherine's room. "You can take the spare room for now, I guess."

The young hunter simply nodded, then headed back out to gather his gear. After taking them inside and setting the bags and cases down in the spare room, D knelt down and opened one particular case that contained several vicious looking blade weapons. Two sets of curved blades attached to a central hub, what looked like a khatar, and several sharp metal stakes, all packed into the hard shell case. D withdrew both of the throwing blades and set them on a small desk which was against the far wall. The hunter began checking his other weapons before finally closing the door to his room and glancing to the golden gauntlet on his left arm.

"What do you make of this?" he asked the object. For a moment, it was quiet. Then, the back of the gauntlet shimmering, a face formed from the metal. It seemed to shift in the act of concentration.

"Well," the face stated while the deep sunken sockets where eyes would have been narrowed, "Tremere sounds like a Kinthea bloodbag alright." Again, the face shifted, now looking around. Those dark eye-points creased as the face gave a tight frown. "I don't like this, D. We've never dealt with a Kinthea this old before."

A nod while D stood and set the other hard case against a wall. His eyes shifted toward the direction of Catherine's room, not sure what it was he was feeling. "If he is as old as they say," the young hunter muttered before grabbing the gauntlet with his right hand, "then he is going to be one hell of a challenge." A glance to the gauntlet. "Time to get off my arm, Varda."

The gauntlet growled, then sighed as a sharp click was heard. Following that was the sounds of something pulling out of D's skin, and he finally took the golden gauntlet off and set it on the bed. It was then he took the chance to pull off his overcoat and set it down next to the gauntlet, now revealing in full the hard black armor he wore over that red bodysuit. The left sleeve of the suit was cut off below the elbow, where the opening of the gauntlet would have been. Blood was trickling from a series of wounds down the forearm, but the wounds themselves were already rapidly healing. D took the chance to wipe the blood off, then set the case that rested against the wall down and opened the lid to reveal its contents.

"If I'm right," the boy began while pulling out a trio of battery cells for his firearm, "he'll probably have a small army of mutants at his beck and call." D sighed and slipped the power cells into slots that were mounted on his belt. His head suddenly snapped upward, nose sniffing the air before he tilted his gaze toward the window. "_Lupus_," he muttered before pulling out a silver stake from the first case and locking it into a holding slot on the left leg section of his armor. From the firearms case before him, he withdrew several sections of a weapon that were quickly assembled into a rifle. D pulled a large power cell out, loaded it into the stock, then tapped on a small key pad that was mounted on the rifle's side to power the weapon. "They'll come tonight for her."

The gauntlet gave a soft chuckle. Clearly, he was amused by something, and D wasn't so sure he wanted to know what that was. "You know, the girl's siblings seems rather intent on being able to protect her," came the snide comment while the face continued to shift in form in order to show speech. "I'm pretty sure if you made it a part of the deal, you could get having the older girl for-"

"That's enough, Varda," D hissed while powering down the particle rifle and setting it against the wall. He walked over and picked up the sentient gauntlet, then glared down at the metal face on the back of the object. "Just because I look like a teenager doesn't mean that my priorities are the same as one."

"Hey, all I'm saying is that she looks like a nice piece of ass," the gauntlet replied. There again was that insufferable grin. No doubt, Varda was imagining quite the vivid image of such deal being fulfilled. "It's been only God knows how long since you last got laid."

Once more, D growled. He threw the gauntlet that was Varda's body to the bed and grabbed his coat, setting it now on the desk before locking his weapon cases shut and heading out of the room, door shut behind him. He'd had enough of his traveling companion for now, best to spend some time without that vulgar being while he had the chance.


	3. Chapter 2: Know the Enemy

It was late in the evening when Catherine finally woke up. The sun had yet to completely set, and Daniel was just finishing up with fixing dinner when D came in from storing away his motorcycle. The young hunter paused at the doorway of the house, glanced back at the slowly setting sun, then entered the house.

"I recommend you turn the barrier fields on now," D stated as he walked into the main dining room. He paused when he noticed Catherine, now able to get a better look at her features. The same blue eyes as her siblings, small nose and a round face. D was silent for a moment as he looked her over, then finally shook his head and walked over to where Daniel was setting the table. "Have you explained the arrangements to her yet?"

A shake of his head, and Daniel gave a faint smile as he looked over to his younger sister. "Katie, this is D," he stated while gesturing to the young hunter. "He's going to be solving our problem with Tremere."

The girl nodded, then gave a small bow to the blonde young man. "Thank you for helping us," she said softly. Catherine paused, looked at the odd crimson eyes that D had, then moved to sit down at the table while Iria was bringing in the rather large chicken and setting it in the center of the table.

Only once D himself had taken a seat at the head of the table did anyone say anything. Daniel quickly filled the hunter's plate with mashed potatoes, gravy, and chicken, then passed it over to D before serving himself. "How long have you been hunting vampires?" he idly asked, trying to make some kind of conversation with the person they hoped would be their savior.

"Longer than you probably assume," D replied as he cut a piece from the chicken on his plate and placed it in his mouth. After a moment, he gulped it down and brought his gaze on Catherine. "And I imagine your sister wants to ask me some questions of her own."

The girl blinked in surprise, then realized the way she'd been staring at him was an obvious dead give-away. She swallowed the food in her mouth, then sighed and nodded. "I suppose that I am wondering why you hunt the vampires," Catherine began. She noted the look that her siblings were giving her. Best to elaborate. "Not many vampires hunters survive to get all too good, or so I've heard."

D didn't answer right away. He sipped from the glass of milk he'd been given, furled his brows, then set the glass down and shifted slightly in his seat. "Not many hunters get good enough to live long, that's true." He paused for a moment, glancing to his left arm where there was no sign at all now of the wounds where his gauntlet had been grafted on. "I suppose you could say that I'm one of the really good ones, considering how long I've been doing this, and how many of the Kinthea I've taken down in that time."

"Kinthea?" Daniel asked, not understanding the term. "I'm not familiar with that word."

"Not many humans are," D replied. He sighed, took another bite of his chicken, then glanced down at the table for a moment before returning his gaze to the Rans. "There's more than just one race of vampires. The kuei-jin in the Asiria region, vetala in Indonia, and most commonly, the Kinthea." He paused for a moment. Secrets of the undead were a touchy subject, even for a hunter to be discussing. But, it was best to let these people know what they were facing. "Kinthea are the most well known breed, with most of the traditional weaknesses that you probably have read about. They're the ones that took over after the Great War four hundred years ago."

There was a nod from Daniel, and the indication for D to continue. "So, Tremere is a...Kinthea?"

D didn't exactly give a confirming gesture, but he really didn't need to. "For him to have been around since before the war, he'd have to be Kinthea." A glance to the Rans that let them know the seriousness of what he was telling them. "Not many vampire races have members which predate the war, and from all the information you gave me, Tremere is definitely a Kinthea." His eyes narrowed as he tilted his head toward the front door. After a moment, D continued. "I suppose that there are werewolves living in the area."

Daniel and Iria nodded in response. "There's a pack of them that live out near the castle," Iria stated. "Tremere has been controlling the werewolves around here ever since he first took up residence at the castle."

There was only a nod from D as he continued eating his meal. It didn't seem that he was about to tell them any more now. Catherine sighed, then took a breath before continuing with her questions. "You have a rather unusual name," she stated, now getting a pair of surprised looks from her brother and sister while D simply glanced up at her. "I've never heard of someone who only had a single letter for their name."

A nod and D seemed like he would answer that inquiry. "You could say that you've never met anyone like me before," was his reply. He didn't comment further, which led to the rest of the meal being rather quiet.

* * *

The sun had finally set. Daniel and Iria had brought in the animals and turned on all the barriers while D simply waited. It wasn't until the last fading traces of sunlight vanished that he donned his coat and the golden gauntlet. With the sentient metal object back on his arm, D looked around at the various old weapons that were displayed on the walls of the living room. He recognized quite a few as arms he himself had experience with.

"You're certainly in an odd mood," came the voice of the gauntlet Varda. The face formed once more on the back of the gauntlet while D did his best to ignore the being. It didn't make Varda go away, unfortunately. "Telling them information on the Kinthea, which, by the way, is a bad idea. You know how much those suckheads hate having their little secrets spread around."

The young hunter snorted as he continued to admire the Rans' collection of weapons. "The more people know about them, the better off humans will be."

It was Varda's turn to scoff. "You're normally not like this, kid." The face shifted to give the expression of distaste while the eyesockets narrowed. "Usually when we're after a Kinthea, you're making all kinds of smartass remarks, but with this Tremere guy, you're kind'a...brooding." One socket widened a bit. "You're not going angsty on me, are you?"

He didn't answer right away, being that he wasn't that intent on giving Varda more to play with. "This one is different," D stated while he examined a large hand pulser. Decent handling, and the type of output it had would no doubt blow a hole the size of a watermelon in the target. "This job overall is different."

Varda's face shifted again, now looking almost like the being inhabiting the gauntlet was leering lecherously at D. "It's the girl, right? The one you're suppose to keep from being turned?" Now Varda was snickering. "I knew it, you're still a sucker for a pretty face with a nice set of tits!"

Those crimson eyes flashed violently as D brought his full attention on Varda. The face frowned in response; he knew _that_ look. "Fine, fine," the gauntlet growled while now angling to look up at the displayed weapons. "You're in one of those moods." A pause as Varda looked over toward the main hallway. "Speaking of moods, I'll let you stew on your own for a bit."

With Varda's face flushing down to vanish from the top of the gauntlet, D sighed and reached up to a broadsword that was mounted above the fireplace, taking it down from the stand and looking it over. He hadn't held something like this in a while, it felt a bit off.

"That belonged to my grandfather," came Daniel's voice as the young man walked up from behind D. He smiled when the hunter glanced back at him, shrugging while joining D in looking over the display of weapons. "He was a werewolf hunter in his day, taught my dad what he knew about dealing with werewolves." A pause as Daniel saw D put the broadsword back on its display and walk over to the window. "I have to be honest, I don't know much about vampires, only that they fear the sun, symbols of faith, and garlic."

As Daniel stepped over to join him at the window, D glanced to the young man. "Only if you have unwavering faith in what the symbol represents," he stated before returning his attention to outside. "Anything less, and it's useless." Something caught his attention, his eyes changing shape to become slit like a cat and his vision increased in depth. "Garlic only helps with revenants, true vampires are unaffected." Now his gaze went up toward the moon. He frowned as he saw the faint reddish tint. "Tomorrow night will be a blood moon, when Kinthea believe that human blood is tainted and embracing a mortal as a vampire is bad luck." His eyes turned toward Daniel, narrowed in concern. "He'll most likely come for your sister tonight."

The young man nodded and grabbed his rifle from a stand, checked the power cell, then engaged the firing systems. "I'll do whatever it is I have to," he stated firmly. When D only shook his head, however, Daniel blinked in confusion. "What? I'll do anything to protect my sister!"

"The best thing you can do is stay out of this fight," D replied while now heading back toward Catherine's room. The girl was in there alone, reading. It was enough to satisfy D, and he shut the door, pulling a small device from in his coat and placing it on the door. After he entered a keycode on the keypad, a faint crackling field flashed out from the device, very similar to the barriers that protected the house. "She'll be safe behind that," D stated as he walked back into the living room. Daniel was still waiting there, likely ready to join D in the inevitable fight regardless of what the hunter told him. With a sigh, D held up his left hand, and the shifting metal face formed in the palm while Daniel stared in shock. "And _you_ will be much safer this way."

"What the hell is-" Daniel slumped over a second after that gauntlet touched his skin. D quickly caught him and set the young man on a nearby couch before turning his attention toward the grid controls for the barriers. With Daniel now fast asleep, all D had to worry about was the vampire who would be coming for the youngest of the Rans.

Something was definitely moving outside, just outside the barriers. "_Lupus_," D muttered while Varda's face shifted about to appear on the top of the gauntlet's hand area. "No doubt Tremere has a group of mutants as well. Best to save Daniel the trouble of repairing the barrier in the morning." He walked over to the grid, opened the panel, and keyed off the power to the barrier.

Now shutting off the lights as well, D could see the forms outside. A pair of werewolves and three more human forms. No doubt Tremere and a pair of mutant thralls. D sighed, took a breath, then walked to the front door. Opening it, D stepped outside and shut the door behind him while now locking his eyes on the group of beings waiting just outside the barrier zone. Strangely, he couldn't smell any vampire blood here, just the tainted blood of thralls.

One of the thralls, a slim young man who looked no older than Daniel, quickly ran his gaze over D, appraising him. There was a mocking laugh from the thrall as he shook his head. "You're the best those brats could get?" he intoned tauntingly. His eyes shimmered with light, a light which was from the touch of vampire's blood in him. "Not bad looking, but still, nowhere even near a match for our master."

"My business is with Jonathan Tremere," D stated calmly. A breeze caused his coat to flare open slightly, and he took the chance to step toward the group of mutants and werewolves. "Since you're still somewhat human, I'll give you this chance to leave now."

The young thrall growled in response to being ordered around by this simple human hunter. "How dare you!" he spat. "I am Grigori, favored of Tremere's servants, and I won't take that kind of talk from a lousy human!" A nod to his companions, and the werewolves rushed at D, claws flashing while they roared.

The hunter narrowed his eyes, then flew up with little preparation and went sailing over the werewolves. As he landed, D drew out his gun, turned, and fired to unleash a rippling burst that tore open a hole the size of a human head in one werewolf's chest. A second burst blew the creature's head off, and as the other werewolf turned around to attack, the third shot cause its head to explode like an overly ripe tomato. Blood and brain matter splattered on the ground, while D simply turned on his heel and aimed his weapon at the three remaining thralls.

One of the older thralls took a step back. "He just wasted both fleabags in less than a minute," the man hissed to Grigori while preparing to retreat. "This guy is a hardcore hunter!"

Grigori snorted as he snapped his right hand open and extended a set of metallic claws from his fingers. "They were mindless dogs good only for hunting and fodder," he stated while walking toward D. "I am a high thrall, human, promised that I shall become one of the nobility as reward for my service, and you'll find that I am much more difficult to fight than a pair of _lupus._"

The thrall flicked out his hands, firing those metal claws at D. The blonde hunter merely raised his left arm and swung out, batting the flying nails away while a wide two-and-a-half foot long blade was now protruding from the gauntlet. D's crimson eyes narrowed again, once more becoming feline slits. Now they were glowing with a bright red light. It gave the thralls warning that they had misjudged and underestimated him.

"I'll say it again," D intoned with a venomous trace of anger in his voice. "My business is with your master Tremere. Don't ignore my mercy and continue to stand as his human shields."

The third thrall, a tall burly man, growled and raced at D. In a flash, the blade on Varda came up and slashed at the thrall, who dodged to the side and brought out a viciously serrated knife that was driven into D's stomach. The hunter gritted his teeth, then yelled when the man pulled his knife back out. Pieces of skin were still on the edges of the blade while blood was streaming down from the wound.

"Not so tough now, are you?" the thrall stated, raising his knife to stab the hunter through the head and finish the job. As he swung down, however, D's right hand dropped his gun and came to grab the man's wrist. "What!" the thrall gasped. D was staring up at him, pushing him away despite the loss of blood. "But how!"

The man stepped away, out of range from the blade on D's arm. The hunter stood up, looking to the three thralls and clenching his left hand into a fist. "Your first mistake was in thinking I was easy prey," he stated calmly. After a moment, he reached down and picked up the pressure blaster, slipping it back into his coat. "Your second mistake was in assuming that I'm a mere human."

Grigori finally cracked a smile. As one could see, the large wound in D's stomach was already rapidly healing, something no human could do. These new revelations seemed to amuse him. "How ironic," he stated while brushing back his hair and laughing. "Oh, how damn ironic! You're a dhampir!"

Those crimson eyes flashed and narrowed as they reverted back to normal. "What did you call me?" D hissed as he took a step toward the thralls. He wiped off the blood that had gotten on his belt, then raised up Varda to aim the blade at Grigori. "You did not just call me a dhampir."

More amusement shined in Grigori's eyes. This was getting interesting. "Not all that accepting of what you are, I take it," the thrall stated saucily. He relaxed his stance a bit, acting flippantly now in regards to the situation. "You know, I've heard about your kind, but I've never actually met a dhampir before." There again was that mocking gleam in his eyes. "A vampire's joke with a mortal woman."

"I am not a dhampir," came D's scathing retort. "And I have no relation to your Kinthea suckhead masters."

Now Grigori has confusion mixed with his amusement. This hunter was obviously a dhampir; the half-breed spawn of a Kinthea vampire and a human. Why was he denying what he was, even if he did hunt his own ancestors? "Like hell you're not," the young thrall stated while giving a rather flamboyant hand gesture. "You just took a hit that would have any human hunter on the ground, bleeding to death, and you healed the whole thing in a matter of seconds."

"You talk like your Kinthea masters are the only vampires that exist," D replied as he took a step toward the thralls. "More to the point, you seem to think that the Kinthea are the only ones who can breed with humans." Now it was D who smiled. "I take it your master never told you about the vanpyr."

The older thralls had confused looks on their faces. Grigori, however, recognized the word, and his face suddenly went from amused to a scowl. "Oh," he growled, now knowing what D was talking about. "You're one of _those_ dhampirs."

"That's _dunpeal_, asswipe," D snapped back angrily. "Just because I'm a hybrid doesn't mean I'm some filthy-blooded bargain bin vampire wann'a be."

There was a grin again on Grigori's face. It seemed this half-breed hunter was rather easy to goad into anger. Already this was proving interesting. "No," he replied, "it means you seem to have this notion that because your father won't admit what he is, you have to have your own special name for what you are." A snort as he flipped away a bang from over his eyes. "I've heard about your 'vanpyrs'. A bunch of idiots who don't want to admit that they're just another Kinthea bloodline, so they make up their own name and tell their dhampirs that they're 'dunpeals'." He turned his gaze to the less bulky of his companions. "Would you kill this dhampir idiot and get it over with? Master Tremere wants his bride already, as in yesterday."

A nod. "My pleasure," the thrall replied, now smiling as he turned toward D. "Just a dhampir," he muttered. "Allow me to introduce myself, dhampir. My name is Reidai, and I'm going to enjoy beating your half-breed ass into the ground where it belongs."

The golden blade protruding from Varda flashed as D took ready stance. In an instant, it shimmered and fluidly retracted back into the gauntlet like liquid. Now he stood in preparation for hand to hand instead of armed combat. His eyes changed once more into slits, allowing him to perceive everything he saw.

Reidai ran at the hunter. In an instant, D swung out and slammed his left arm against the thrall's chest, brought his right hand up to crack into Reidai's face, then spun around and delivered a powerful kick that flung the thrall back almost ten feet before he hit the ground and skidded along for another five.

The black coat billowed out as D once more spun and brought out one of the small throwing blades. As he completed his turn, the young half-breed hunter flung out the weapon, landing a hit directly between the eyes of the burly thrall who had stabbed him. There was a satisfied smile on D's face as the man slumped and fell to his knees before falling over on his face.

One brow raised in surprise as Grigori looked down at what had been one of his fellow thralls. Half-breed spawn that this hunter was, he was good, Grigori had to give the boy that much credit. However, the fact he was this good meant he was a possible major annoyence. Certainly no threat, since a simple dhampir, while powerful when compared to a human or even a lower thrall, was no match for a vampire and their prized high thrall childer-to-be.

Yet, this hunter could prove an interesting challenge later on. "Reidai, leave him be for now," Grigori ordered when the thrall was about to resume his attack. A smile was on the younger thrall's lips now. "Let the dhampir have his victory here, we can easily replace Nore."

The older thrall hesitated, then nodded and stepped back to join Grigori. "I wanted to kill him," he hissed to Grigori as they moved to leave.

D frowned as he kept his eyes locked on the departing thralls, then finally sighed with relief and walked over to where the dead body of the thrall called Nore lay. He turned the corpse over, gripped the throwing blade that was lodged in Nore's head, and ripped the weapon out. After wiping the blood off the stained blade, D silently slipped it into his coat again.

"Scumsucking bloodguzzler wann'a be," he whispered as he stood up and looked out toward the castle where the thralls were headed for. "I should have torn his goddamn throat out for calling me a dhampir."

Varda's face quickly formed on the top of the gauntlet as he raised a 'brow'. "You know, you could seriously work on that anger management issue when someone calls you a dhampir." He smiled when that same flash of anger grew in D's expression. "I'm being honest. Most of your kind let it go, even if they do want to rip the head off of whoever called them a dhampir."

"Most dunpeals aren't like me," D replied sharply. He looked around at the werewolf corpses and Nore's own dead body. It was going to be a hell of a job to dispose of these, and he didn't have anything that could incinerate the bodies. "Varda, get to work and suck these guys up."

There was a chuckle as Varda's face shifted into the palm of the gauntlet. "Dinner time!" he exclaimed just before opening his mouth wide and creating a vacuum force which pulled on the corpses. After a few moments, Nore's body flew off the ground and was sucked down into Varda's mouth, followed by the two werewolf corpses. The face let out a belch, then acted like he was licking his lips. "Mm, mm," he remarked while shifting his face to the back of the gauntlet again. "Nothin' like _lupus_ spare ribs with a side of thrall steak to fill a demon's belly, eh?"

D didn't reply to the joke. Instead, he looked around to make sure that the thralls and their minions had indeed left, then walked back into the house to restart the barriers. It was then that he walked over to where Daniel was sleeping on the couch, checked to make sure the boy was indeed alright, then headed to the back room and pulled off his coat. "We're heading into town tomorrow," he stated while pulling Varda off his arm. The gauntlet let out a groan at the plan after being set on the table. "I need to find out more about Jonathan Tremere, something about those thralls smelled familiar."

Varda frowned. Now that D mentioned it, there had been something familiar about the vampire blood which empowered those thralls. "You think Tremere might be someone we know?" he asked, voice now missing that joking tone. "The kid said that this guy is supposed to be a pre-war Kinthea, and we know that there aren't too many of them still running around who aren't in their first millennium at the least."

There was a nod from D while he unlocked and took off his armor. The section plates found themselves now resting next to Varda and D's coat. "It's possibly someone we've gone after before that got away and changed their name, we've seen Kinthea do that before." He looked out the window, noting the moon and how close to full it was. "Either way, I want to find out who he is before we go after him in that castle of his."


	4. Chapter 3: Words of Warning

The sun was already in the sky when Daniel finally woke up. He came to with a yell, being that the last thing he remembered was that strange face forming in the palm of D's gauntlet. What had that thing been? He was sleeping on the couch, how had he gotten here? Why'd he fallen asleep, for that matter? One minute, he was ready to join D in fighting Tremere or who ever he sent to retrieve Catherine, and the next, he'd blacked out and woken up here.

"What the hell happened last night?" he muttered while getting to his feet and walking outside. Iria was already tending to the animals, and Catherine was outside in the sunlight at last, helping with the chores around the ranch. Whatever had happened, Catherine was safe, and she was getting back to her normal cheerful self.

Wait a minute, where was D? Surely he hadn't gone off to the castle alone? "Iria!" Daniel called out. His older sister, brushing dirt off her hands, looked over at him. "Where's D!"

"He headed off into town on that motorcycle of his!" she called back. "Said he'd be back in a few hours!"

* * *

His motorcycle giving a powerful growl as he tore down the dirt road, D narrowed his eyes while holding the steering grip steady. Through his visor, he got calculations on how far it was to town as well as a readout of his speed. His left foot pushed on the accelerator while his right hand came up to the console in the center of the dashboard and tapped a series of switches. Seconds later, a set of thrusters, three on each side, extended out from the rear of the motorcycle, flaring to life as a huge jump in velocity was registered by the data readout of D's shield visor.

Now coming to a fork in the path, D turned down toward the cobbled road which led to the town in the distance. "Maps and data on Runsalva," he stated into his helmet. After a moment, a translucent image imprinted on the inside of the visor, detailing the streets and locals of the city. Now on the main road into the city, D shut down the overdrive thrusters and released the throttle, allowing his speed to bleed off before entering town.

"Where to find out more about this Jonathan Tremere," he muttered. Already, as he entered the city, people were staring at his motorcycle. It was quite a rare sight to see such a vehicle even in the bigger, more technological cities, and no doubt, out here in the frontier regions, it was something most people never even caught a glimpse of. Then again, D's motorcycle was quite an odd sight even in the technological center of the world.

About eight feet long, designed for a leaned back seating posture with the throttle controls mounted at the feet instead of on the handle grip, and a lift-up control board, the vehicle was definitely not a traditional design for such a machine. Panels now covered the ports where the overdrive thrusters would extend from, but the seam lines were obvious, and a thick windshield came up from the control board to well cover the driver and anyone else riding.

"Give me the location of city hall," D stated into the helmet. Instantly, the map displayed on his visor shifted into a close up while indicating the roads to take in order to reach the intended location. If there was any place with information on Tremere's reign of terror around here, it would be the city records. That meant dealing with Mayor Rodham, however. Not something D was looking forward to again after his less than grand first impression on Runsalva's leader.

No getting around it, unfortunately. D pulled back on the heavy drive shift pedal to bring the motorcycle's engine into a lower gear, turned left at the corner, and came to a halt as he reached city hall. The moment his motorcycle was shut off, the displays on his helmet visor vanished. D sighed and lifted up the control board, dismounting and lowering the board back down before tapping a sequence into the small keypad strapped to his right arm. After a moment, a small light on the control board began blinking, and, pulling off his helmet, D headed into the building before him.

He could feel the frightened stares that people gave him. Well aware of the aura he let off which spoke of the ability he had, D didn't exactly take offense to their worried expressions. Right now, however, that deadly air would be put to good work, and hopefully he could get some information out of Rodham.

Voices from the other side of the office door made D halt. Whoever was in there with Rodham was talking to him about the Rans, and it was not sounding like the discussion was a favorable one. Mention of driving the Rans out of the area, the idea of just going up to the ranch and killing Catherine being brought up, and then the suggestion that they simply turn over all three siblings to Tremere and hope that the vampire left the city alone.

"Loving people," Varda hissed as his face formed on the back of the gauntlet. He made the motion of sniffling, almost like he was expressing sympathy for the Rans. "They'd rather just take a knee-jerk action before you can even do your job."

"People like them don't deserve to be ranked as human," D replied sharply. He glanced around, noting that he was alone in the hallway, then narrowed his eyes while returning his attention to the office door. A knock on the door earned a resound order to go away. That was all the invitation he needed.

His right foot coming up to align with the handle, D kicked open the door and found himself looking at the mayor and a group of men who even now turned to stare at him in shock. "The knob was stuck," he remarked wryly while walking into the office. Already he could tell he'd given these strangers a very odd and unlikable impression of himself. Not that it mattered to him. "I need to know any information you have on Jonathan Tremere." Yes, now they were backing away from him. Maybe these men weren't so stupid after all. "When he first took up residence in the area, the area of his influence, and if anyone was living in the castle before him."

One of the men went red faced at the lack of manners that this young man was displaying for the head of the city government. "What gives you the right to just barge in here and-"

Out came the force gun to aim at that rather outspoken man's head. "I didn't ask you," D stated calmly while shifting his glance slightly toward the man. A gesture for his target to make himself less noticed. "Sit down, this won't take long." His attention was now on Rodham, and though the gun came down from its aim, it was not put away. "My request, Mister Rodham."

The mayor was silent. He glanced around at the other men in the room, then sighed. "Gentlemen," he began while gesturing to the hunter. "This is the young man I was telling you about, the hunter that Daniel Ran has hired to kill Duke Tremere." There was a chuckle from the mayor, one that definitely was in the intent to mock D. "The one who most certainly fail, hence our planning."

D's eyes shifted toward a wall, and in a flash, his force gun was raised and fired, causing a splatter of purple fluids to erupt from thin air. A moment later, the form of a reptilian creature appeared and fell off the wall from where it had been hiding under the protection of some kind of invisibility. "Duke Tremere?" the hunter intoned, his voice filled with suspicion. "I wasn't aware that the Kinthea were still referred to by titles of nobility." There was a slim smile on his lips now as the barrel of the force gun was now aimed at Rodham. "How long has he ruled here, I wonder?"

The human backed away while his companions moved out of the blast range of the gun. "I don't know what you're talking about!" Rodham exclaimed, now pressed against his desk while D took a step toward him. The blinking lights of the force gun, after a touch from D's thumb, went solid, indicating that the power level of the gun was at full. He pulled that trigger, it would unleash a blast that could vaporize Rodham's entire upper body. This boy meant business. "Alright, alright!" he yelled, raising his hands as if it would ward off any shot fired. "Duke Tremere has been at the castle since he killed the person who originally lived there!"

That was interesting. Tremere wasn't the one who had ordered the castle built? Perhaps there was more to this than D had first thought. "Are the original owners of the castle archived in the regional records?" he continued. His thumb tapped the setting switch, now returning the side lights to a blinking pattern. "Answer fast, Rodham, because my patience is running out very quickly."

"Yes, yes!" the mayor replied. His voice was cracked, filled with fear, fear of this young hunter. "You can't be serious about trying to _kill_ Duke Tremere, he's over four hundred years old!"

D didn't move his aim. Instead, he allowed his eyes to shift in form, now feline slits that stared down at a terrified Rodham. "When I say I'm going to kill a vampire," he hissed smoothly, "I'm always _dead_ serious."

The gun came back and was spun on his finger, slipped under the fold of his coat and D turned and left. No one said a word while he walked out the door and down the hall. It was just as well, nothing they could say would have changed what he intended to do.

The gun came back and was spun on his finger, slipped under the fold of his coat and D turned and left. No one said a word while he walked out the door and down the hall. It was just as well, nothing they could say would have changed what he intended to do.

"Now that's the cocky little bastard I know!" Varda exclaimed just before D reached the front door of the building. The face failed to form, but Varda hardly need to present his features in order to talk. "And here I was afraid you'd gotten all brooding and angsty on me!"

Tapping on the keypad around his right arm to deactivate his motorcycle's security system, D slipped his helmet on and slid into his seat on the vehicle. With the control board lowered in place, he powered the ignition and tapped on the console keypad to activate his helmet's data interface. "Bring me the location of the Runsalva hall of records," he stated. While his visor displayed the directions, D revved the engine, pushed on the right side pedal to engage the drive gears, and tore off down the road, now making his way back through the town.

Runsalva was a rather low-tech frontier town. Since it was so far out from the central hub of the region, there was almost no chance that they used any modern computer system for storing their records. No doubt, the regional capital had to send out a census to gather updates on the size and population of this place because they were such a remote and low technology city. As it was, there were few places with much of a high level of technology.

It wasn't long before he'd found his next destination, and, pulling his motorcycle around to hide in a narrow alleyway just next to the hall of records, D slipped off the vehicle and reactivated the security system. Hopefully, no one would get the bright idea of trying to steal the machine here, because they would be in for one nasty surprise. He stepped out of the alley, opened the doors of the building, and made his way toward the main hictorical documents that detailed landowners and residents of the area.

It was hours before he came across the information he needed. At last finding material pertaining to the castle, D set the rather thin folder on a desk and flipped it open. Already, he could see that there was more to the castle that he'd originally assumed. Apparently, it had been built just after the revolt three hundred years ago, when the vampire rulers had been overthrown and driven out to the fringes of the world. The original owner, a man by the name of Hyrem Greymare, had been a very wealthy landowner and one of the original founders of Runsalva. The castle had served not just as his home, but as a safe haven for wandering travelers.

That was until Jonathan Tremere arrived. It seemed that when Tremere came to this region, he posed as one of those travelers, took advantage of Greymare's hospitality, and killed the castle owner, claiming the region as his own. Ever since, Tremere had been maintaining an iron grip on Runsalva.

Still, something piqued at D's curiousity in regards to the name of Hyrem Greymare. It sounded familiar, but he wasn't quite sure from where. "Varda," he said softly while now looking for any records on Greymare, "you know the name Hyrem Greymare?"

"Hyrem Greymare?" the gauntlet replied, voice touched with confusion. The face furled its 'brows' while D continued to search for information on the name in question. "It sounds familiar, but I can't remember off the top of my head. Why do you ask?"

"He was the person who used to live out in the castle before Tremere came here," the young hunter stated as he found the folder and pulled it out. Flipping it open, D's eyes ran down the records that were filed in this folder. Oddly, there wasn't much, save that he was one of the original residents in Runsalva, a rich land owner who was quite generous, and that he'd been killed by Tremere.

Wait. According to this, Tremere showed up around two hundred and thirty years ago, which would have made it about seventy years after the castle was built and Runsalva was settled. Greymare looked to be about in his late thirties or early fourties from the picture in his file. Yet the photo of him from just before he was killed looked like he hadn't aged at all. No human looked like that at a century old. Greymare had to have been another vampire. Not a Kinthea, there had been no reports of vampire attacks until Tremere, nor was he a kuei-jin.

"A vanpyr in this region?" D whispered while continuing to read the file. He paused, shut the folder, and went about putting away all the materials he'd gathered. As soon as he was done, D walked out of the building, headed around into the alley, and found that his motorcycle was untouched. Nearby, however, was a scorched piece of wood that looked to have been blasted. Seemed that someone had tried to get at his motorcycle after all and used the smart methods of testing for security systems.

Deactivating the system, D slipped his helmet on, got on, and powered up the engine drives. Something was very odd about the entire business surrounding Jonathan Tremere. The mayor seemed more intent on pleasing the vampire than getting rid of the problem, those thralls the night before acted like they ruled the region completely, and it seemed that the castle had been the home of a vanpyr before Tremere's arrival.

Pulling out onto the main street, D gunned the engine, racing toward the road leading toward the Rans' ranch. As soon as he was out of town, D pushed the right side pedal to shift into high gear, then activated the overdrive and tore away at high speed. He'd spent long enough finding out what he could from the city records, he'd have to get more information from a different source.


	5. Chapter 4: Descent into Darkness

Seated in the main dining hall of the castle, a tall man with shoulder length black hair waited for the return of his servants. He was dressed in a white silk shirt, black pants, and a pair of boots, while the rich blue overcoat he wore draped down the chair. In his left hand was a goblet half-filled with blood, while his right hand tapped impatiently on the arm of his chair. Pale skin with a corpse blue tinge, eyes bright blue like ice, and a very bored expression on his face which told of his lack of patience.

"What is taking that brat so long to get back?" he muttered before sipping on the blood in his goblet. With a sigh, Jonathan Tremere stood up and left the dining room, now wandering about the castle. As he entered the expansive ballroom, his eyes looked up at the massive portrait that hung on the wall before him. A name was etched into a small plate at the bottom edged of the frame; "_Vlad Crusadus_".

Such an odd person he'd found the previous owner of the castle to be. A vampire, no denying it, but one that refused to treat the humans like the livestock they were. One of those vanpyr no doubt, a race which was quite at odds even with itself. The oldest of their kind were determined to protect the humans, while the younger ones had fortunately figured out that it was better to accept what they were and indulge their bloodlust.

Footsteps rang through the castle halls. Tremere sighed as he turned to find out who was stumbling their way through his domain. As luck would have it, the source of the footsteps were none other than Grigori and Reidai, returned from their mission. Oddly, Nore was missing, and Tremere could not feel the two werewolves he'd sent with the thralls. "Where is she?" he asked after taking another sip from the goblet. "I assume that Nore took her to the guest chambers?"

The thralls glanced at each other, then to Tremere before they bowed in apology. "Forgive us," Grigori stated, not yet raising his gaze to meet the eyes of his master. "The girl's family has hired a hunter to protect her." He didn't need to look up to know that his master was glaring at him. "A dhampir, and a well trained one at that."

Now that angered expression became one of intrigued curiosity. "A dhampir hunter?" the vampire said, now gesturing for his servants to rise. "Interesting. Most interesting. Most dhampir don't live long enough to become well trained hunters, let alone live to rebel against their ancestors." He turned now, gesturing for his thralls to follow him. "Which leads me to question where Nore is."

Hesitation. Girgori knew that Tremere wasn't going to like this. "The dhampir hunter killed him," he stated. As he'd thought, their vampire master came to a halt and turned his head back to look at them from over his shoulder. "The hunter is different than anyone we've faced before, and he insists that he's not a dhampir."

Tremere's eyes narrowed. "He refers to himself as a dunpeal then?" he asked, and the answering nod confirmed his suspicion. This as going to be interesting indeed if it was a dunpeal instead of some simple dhampir. "Perhaps Hyrem Greymare left behind some legacy with which to haunt me by," the vampire muttered before continuing down the hall. His thralls quickly hurried to resume their place behind him. "What did he look like?"

"Short guy," Reidai replied. "About five foot seven or so. Blonde hair, a bit pale, and he wore a lot of red and black."

"And he has red eyes."

Tremere came to a halt when Grigori mentioned the hunter's eyes. The description quickly formed an image in his mind. "Red eyes?" he repeated. "Were they bright red, or more of blood crimson?"

"Definitely looked like fresh blood," Grigori stated. From the perturbed look on their master's face, the thralls knew that something was wrong. "Is he someone you know?"

There was no immediate answer. Tremere simply continued down the hall, hands behind his back. He could not make assumptions about this hunter, but there was a worry growing in the back of his mind. "This hunter," he at last said, turning his head slightly toward his servants. "He will indeed be an interesting opponent." A pause. "Don't underestimate him, Girgori. This vampire hunter may be a half-breed, but make no mistake, he is a foe to be taken seriously."

The thrall nodded and bowed, he and Reidai standing there as Tremere continued on into his private chambers. It was well past midnight now, meaning that in a few hours the sun would begin to rise. Grigori growled and turned to Reidai. "I want info on this dhampir hunter," he hissed angrily. "I want his name, where he comes from, anything you can find!"

The older thrall nodded and walked off, leaving Grigori to stare in the direction of Tremere's quarters. After a moment, he turned and as well left. Even if he was empowered by his master's vampire blood, he still needed rest. Tomorrow would be another day and chance to kill the hunter.

As the powerful engine of his motorcycle growled, D tapped on the control board keypad and activated the overdrive thrusters, tearing off through the countryside at high speed. He'd only stopped off at the ranch to gather a few pieces of equipment before leaving again, now heading for the castle. Already the sun had begun to set. No doubt, Tremere would send his minions again tonight in attempt to take Catherine. If he was lucky, D would already be finished with the vampire by then.

"What's with you now?" Varda asked as his face appeared once more. "You're usually not this moody about a job."

The hunter narrowed his eyes when the castle came in sight. "Get me high-def images from the Enoch satellite network of Greymare Castle," he ordered to the motorcycle's on-board computer. After a few moments, an array of images appeared on the visor, revealing the deep chasm which split the castle from the main region. A single bridge led across the ravine, but it looked to be some kind of retractable drawbridge instead of a static crossing. Why was the bridge down if it was not yet nighttime?

"Look, I'm know I'm a demon living in your gauntlet," Varda said as he tried to get D's attention. "But damnit, I'm a useful demon, and you know it!" Still no response. "Stop ignoring me!"

"Don't distract me when I'm at the wheel," D replied while shutting down the thrusters and shifting the engine into a lower drive. Something didn't feel right about how the lowered drawbridge was practically an open invitation to enter. Did Tremere want him to get inside the castle? Or was it Grigori who was behind this? Speaking of Grigori...

Varda picked up on that thought as well. "You know, that kid in charge of Tremere's thralls seems a bit odd," he said while sniffing. "The scent is a bit off for a thrall, even a high one who's about to become a vampire."

A nod. D wasn't so sure either about Grigori being what he claimed to be. "From what he said, Grigori is rather well favored by Tremere, meaning that he's been serving him for quite a while."

The front tire hit the bridge, causing a slight jolt while D drove down the length of the crossing. Cobalt blue steel, so there was no chance in hell of it collapsing under him. Something didn't feel right though. He was being allowed to just walk right in to the place. It reeked of a trap.

"Careful, D," Varda intoned while the motorcycle's headlight now came on to light the way down the dark foyer corridor. "You're driving right into a trap."

The young hunter snorted as he cracked a smile. "Tell me something I don't know." Leave it to Varda to point out the obvious. No readings from the satellite network, which meant that something about the castle was disrupting the signal. D frowned as he finally pulled his motorcycle to a halt in the expansive foyer and got off, engaging the security system, then tapping another code into the arm mounted keypad. Seconds later, a series of metal panels slid out and locked around the driver seat of the vehicle, closing it off while a large metal piece of armor came up to lock over the windshield.

Satisfied, and with his helmet left behind in the motorcycle, D proceeded down the foyer path. His right hand came up to brush back his hair, now revealing the pointed ears which he'd been so careful to hide before. Hiding what he was here would be pointless, since Girgori and the other thrall had no doubt informed Tremere about him and what he was. Correction, what they _thought_ he was. Leave it to a Kinthea to ignore the fact that there was a huge difference between their kind and the vanpyr.

It was quite in the castle. Strange, since being that Tremere was undoubtedly expecting him, D should have run into a plethora of mutants and monsters intended to slow him down and kill him. Or perhaps he just wasn't looking as hard as he could. Not a problem. In an instant, his eyes shifted into feline slits, now glowing brightly while he looked about for any sign of trouble.

Entering a corridor, D tilted his head back. Something was following him, but it wasn't visible. "I can't see it," he said in a low tone while clenching his left fist. "Varda, what's back there."

The face quickly formed on the back of his hand. "Let me see," came the demon's reply. After a moment, Varda gasped, now forcing out the wide blade from his form. "Phantom jaguar! It's coming up fast, D!"

He turned, bringing up Varda and thrusting once the specter became visible. The blade cut into the necroplasmic flesh, but the ghost was only stopped for a moment before it came around and snapped its jaws at the hunter. D clenched his teeth and held up his right arm, fighting the urge to yell when the phantom bit hard into his arm. It pulled away, allowing him to look around for any sign of a way out. His arm was bleeding badly, but it was nothing that wouldn't heal in a few moments when he had the chance to relax. The problem was, with a phantom jaguar, he had to get rid of the ghost before he could recover.

The blade shimmered and reacted back into the gauntlet. "Varda," D stated while raising his left hand and opening it wide to point his fingers at the phantom. "Fry him."

The demon gave a delighted laugh. "I thought you'd never ask!" he exclaimed, now unleashing a storm of lightning from the fingers of the gauntlet. The electrical barrage wrapped around the specter, causing it to writhe about before D flung his aim to the side and sent the ghost flying back. It was still coming, however. Something was controlling the damned thing.

Was somebody laughing at him? Wait, behind that wall. There had to be some kind of room just past it. A hidden switch or something most likely controlled the entrance, but he didn't have time to search. "Time for a universal lockpick," D muttered as he ran over and slammed his left fist right into the stone, causing it to crumble before him. As he stumbled into the hidden chamber, the jaguar ghost vanished the moment it followed him inside. It was then that he looked up to see the source of the specter sitting before him. An old mutant witch, face looking to have rotted off halfway, tattered rags for clothes, and standing next to her was Grigori, who still had that insufferable grin on his face.

"I didn't expect to see you again so soon," the thrall said in greeting.

The witch laughed as she saw D's bleeding right arm. "Any other man would have lost his arm to my pet," she stated as she stood up, now flexing her bony fingers and showing off her long nails. "That's nothing to say of his life, but you kept both." A grin to reveal her decrepit yellow teeth. "The sign of a true dhampir."

Now the witch was insulting him. Was the whole world that determined to piss him off? "That's dunpeal, old hag," D snapped angrily. He brought down his left arm, blade forming from Varda while his right arm finally began to rapidly heal. "Call me dhampir again, and I'll rip your goddamn throat out."

Grigori raised an amused brow. It was interesting how this hybrid took so much offense to being referred to as what he was. "Regardless of what you call yourself," he said while snapping out his hand to form those metal claws, "you're still a half-breed, and your blood is as filthy as the human whore who bore you."

Crimson eyes now blazing, D brought up his gauntlet to flash the blade in what little light there was in the room. "Fine words from a guy who's just a human with borrowed vampire blood." There was that scent again. This wasn't the smell of a thrall, it was something else. More so, now that he was able to get a good look at him, D found that Grigori looked somehow familiar. Best to worry about that later, _after_ he dealt with the current problem. "How long have you been kissing Tremere's ass, Grigori? Ten, twenty years?"

"I have served my master for three centuries," the thrall replied angrily. He narrowed his eyes at the hunter. "Faithfully, and unfailingly. In return, he grants me my continued youth, and after he claims the girl as his bride, he will grant me the gift of endless life as a noble."

There was a smirk on D's lips. That explained a few things. "Three hundred years," he said, voice dripping with his own sadistic amusement, "and you're still just some thrall?" Now he gave a laugh. "I'd say you're being strung along, Grigori. If Tremere hasn't made you a vampire by now, then there's a good chance he never will."

The young thrall hissed, moved to attack, but was held back by the witch. No, he was not to fight the hunter here, and as much as he wanted to, Grigori dared not disobey his orders. "I wish I could continue the fight from last night," he said while relaxing his posture. "However, I've been ordered to divert you elsewhere."

There was confusion in D's eyes, but then he understood when a flash of light tore around him in a circle and brought the ground beneath him crumbling away. The young hunter gasped in surprise, unable to reach the newly formed ledge, and he fell down into the black depths of the castle, swallowed by the shadows.

* * *

Nightfall. It had been hours since D left, and he as of yet hadn't returned. Daniel was starting to get worried about the hunter now. The moon was full in the sky, now tinged red like blood, just as D had said it would be this night. Hopefully, the hunter was right and the blood moon meant that Catherine would be safe while the situation in the castle was handled.

"Danny," came the call from Iria. Daniel turned to see her standing at the foot of the stairs, holding a rifle in her left hand. "That guy knows what he's doing, you shouldn't worry about him."

The boy nodded, but he didn't feel any more at easy. "It's not D I'm worried about," he replied softly while looking out the window again. His own rifle, charged with a fresh power cell, was in his right hand. He was ready for anything right now, or at least, he hoped so. "It's us." Daniel glanced back at his sister. "I wouldn't put it past Tremere to come for Katie tonight, even if he won't turn her now."

The barriers outside suddenly went out. Seconds later, the power failed, leaving the house in darkness. Daniel raised his rifle even as Catherine came running out of her room and hugged close to their older sister. After an unnerving silence, the front wall caved in, revealing a large werewolf and a tall man with grey hair that was streaked with red.

A series of shots fired from Daniel's rifle, energy blasts flying out, but failing to make their mark as the tall man sprang forward and grabbed the rifle from him, his other hand curling around the young man's neck. The werewolf moved for Iria and Catherine, taking every shot fired at it, and backhanding the older of the two girls to the ground. Now, glaring at Catherine, the beast bared its fangs, growling as it took a step closer.

"That's enough!"

The beast halted, looked back, then stepped away while a young man with black hair, pale blue eyes, and a smug grin on his lips walked into the house; Grigori. He gestured for the beast to keep Iria pinned, then made his way over to Catherine and reached out to hold her face. "You are a pretty thing," he said softly, leering at her while taking note of her curves. "I can see why Master Tremere has picked you for his bride."

"Get your hands off of me!" the girl snapped angrily. "Let my brother and sister go, or-" She gulped when Grigori's expression went cold, realizing that perhaps trying to order this thrall around was not such a good idea. "I'll...I'll..."

"You'll what?" the youthful thrall replied as he squeezed her face. "Bite your own tongue out and bleed to death? While I doubt that you would go through with it, I certainly can't take that chance...or can I?" He glanced to Reidai, who had a demented grin on his face. Now he looked to the werewolf. "You know, Garu has been rather frustrated lately. I'm sure that your older sister would do quite nicely for him, and she'll quickly learn to enjoy being the fuckdoll of a werewolf!"

"No!" Catherine shook her head while the werewolf was tearing open her sister's shirt. "No, leave her alone!"

Again, that demented laugh escaped Grigori's lips. He was enjoying this little scene. Certainly, he wasn't lying about how this werewolf had been rather deprived, and indeed, it would probably enjoy using the girl's older sister as a relief. But, there were so many other more viable uses for such a lovely young woman. Being that his master was claiming this girl, it wouldn't hurt to save the older sister to be his own prize. "I have a better idea," he said, now looking to the werewolf Garu. "Let the woman be for now, we'll get you one of your kind as a fuck buddy tonight."

The creature growled in delight and stepped away from Iria, who was now pulling her shirt shut. Reidai only laughed at the sight before tightening his grip around Daniel's neck. "What about him?" the thrall asked. "Do I snap his neck?"

For a moment, Gigori almost agreed. However, perhaps it would do well to let these humans have a favor; a present in honor of their younger sister's wedding to his master. "Leave them be," he ordered while now grabbing Catherine by the waist and picking her up. With the girl now slung on his shoulder, he grinned to his underlings. "They've got their invitation to the wedding, and we should make sure they'll be alive to attend." His eyes shifted to look at Iria now. "Besides, I've got my own little prize picked out for when I'm granted my rank."

Reidai grinned and dropped Daniel to the ground, now leaping back out through the hole left by the collapsed wall. The werewolf behind remained until Grigori had departed with Catherine, then bounded away after his keepers.

When they were finally safe, Daniel coughed as he tried to breathe again. Reidai's grip was like steel, and if he'd exerted any more pressure, Daniel's windpipe would have been crushed. "Katie," he wheezed before looking over to Iria. There was fear in her eyes from Grigori's proclamation; she was next. Well, it was going to be a cold day in hell before Daniel let that happen. "D will save her," he said, thought now he wasn't so sure. In fact, he couldn't be sure that the young hunter was even still alive.

Had they already lost?

* * *

Nothing but darkness now. He wasn't dead, so that was a good sign, but he wasn't all too sure where he was either. All that he could tell was that it was dark. Oh, and it was wet. After that spell the witch had cast, collapsing the floor and dumping him into the underways of the castle, it was anybody's guess how to get out.

His eyes shifted, now glowing to allow him night vision, but it was only good enough for a few feet in front of him. "Damnit, where is that thing," the hunter muttered as he searched through his coat. Finally, he found what he was looking for and pulled out a small device that was quickly clipped onto his chest armor. A tap of a switch and a bright cone of light shined out, now allowing him to see where he was going.

"That was one hell of a nasty trick those guys pulled," Varda chimed as D began to make his way into the underway. The constant drip of water was the only other sound besides the hunter's movement and Varda's voice. "Have to admit though, interesting place they dumped us into. These catacombs are definitely pre-war."

The young half-breed hunter gave a snort while climbing over a pile of rubble. "Just like going on a field trip with Miss Davers' history class," he remarked sarcastically. With a grunt, D dropped down from the debris, his feet landing in a puddle of water. The stench was putrid, causing him to wrinkle his nose in attempt to block it out. No such luck. "Man, what the hell died down here? Smells like a herd of ulgnas keeled over."

The demon gauntlet couldn't help but chuckle. It seemed that his owner's sense of humor and tenacity for cracking a joke at the most inappropriate time was returning. "Now that's more like the D I know," he remarked. There was a wide smile on the demon's face now. "Let's find a way out of this dump and pay that turd thrall a visit, huh?"

The boy was about to nod when he heard something from deeper in the catacombs. He glanced back the way he came, but that wasn't an option, being that there was no other tunnel leading out. "Fuck," he swore, now turning in the direction of the noise. No choice now but to find out what it was. "This is just great." D sighed as he made his way over the rubble and ancient remains. Risking running into even more trouble was not exactly high on his list of things to do right now, but he needed to find a way out of the underways.

It was about half-an-hour before he finally managed to find where the sound was coming from. At least, he thought it was around half-an-hour. For all he knew, it could have been more. He always did have a lousy sense of time. "Sounds like someone's playing an acoustic guitar or something," he muttered while hopping down from a debris pile. It was then he stopped and looked around. Something felt very strangely familiar about all this. Not a situation he'd been in before, but deja vu all the same. Maybe it was something he'd heard about, or read, or...

"Ah, shit," the hunter growled as he realized why this felt familiar. "It's right out of that damn book!"

Varda raised a brow at his owner. "Book?" the demon asked quizzingly. He hadn't expected this kind of reaction from D over the problem they were facing. "What book is this...oh." Now he got the reference. "_That_ book, the one the Japanese guy wrote."

A nod from D as he gripped his left fist. There was the chance he was being paranoid, but as the saying went, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that they weren't out to get you. In D's case, it all too often proved true. As such, he had learned to be very cautious in these kinds of situations.

Now turning to find himself in a massive chamber, D could see what appeared to be a shallow underground lake. At the center of the lake, seated on a crop of rocks, was an inhumanly beautiful red-haired woman with a guitar in hand. Her skin was a rich blue color, and one could clearly see that she had legs through the black dress she wore. The top of the dress, however, looked to be missing, as one could see as she looked up from her practice. A pair of red tresses came down over her chest, almost conveniently placed as she smiled at the hunter.

"Welcome to my home," she said, standing up and setting her instrument down next to the crop of rocks. She gave an enticing smile, and D, finding that this wasn't what he had been expecting, took the invitation to walk over to the woman. "I assume that this is your first time to the catacombs." The woman brushed back those tresses of hair now to reveal her large breasts.

Raising a brow while he gave a smirk, D couldn't help but nod. "Definitely," he replied as the woman now draped one arm on his shoulder. "The name's D. You are?"

A softly laugh from the woman. "You can call me Marrigan." With a fanciful gaze into D's eyes, the woman ran one finger down the center seam of his armored vest. "It's been so long since I have a visitor. Tremere keeps me locked up down here, all alone." There was a hungry gleam in her eyes now as she looked at the young hunter. "You seem like a vital young man, and very handsome to boot."

"D," Varda intoned, trying to get the young man's attention. "D, there's something wrong here, she's obviously not human!"

With a grin, D didn't bother much in the way of responding. His attention was more on the woman who was just about fawning over him. "In case you forgot," he softly hissed at the gauntlet, "neither am I."

The demon groaned. "That's all we need," he muttered in a whispered tone. "_Now_ the kid starts thinking with his dick."

Marrigan calmly ignored the complaints from the gauntlet while now holding D's face gently. "It's so sad," she continued, pressing her body against his. "I'm so lonely down here, with no one to spend time with." Once more, she gave that enticing smile. "Will you stay with me?"

"Well, I don't know," D replied, now placing in right hand around her waist. "Are you gonn'a be real nice to me?"

With a chuckle, the woman nodded and curled her arms around D's neck. "Oh, I'll be very nice to you." She smiled, then pulled him into a deep kiss. Small surges of lightning crackled from D's mouth to hers, and she moaned while pulling him over to the crop of stones that served as a seat. She didn't break the kiss, and with every second that their lips connected, Marrigan siphoned a bit of his life away from him.


	6. Chapter 5: Duel of Blood

Sitting alone in the main ballroom, Jonathan Tremere waited patiently for his servants to return. It had already been a couple hours since he'd sent Grigori and Reidai with one of the werewolves to retrieve Catherine Ran. With the hunter now trapped under the castle, there shouldn't be anything to keep his minions from completing their mission.

"Let me go, you blood guzzling monster!"

Well it sounded like they'd returned in success this time. Tremere gave the large portrait a scornful sneer before turning to see his thralls and the girl they'd captured walk into the ballroom. As expected, she was struggling, but that was nothing he couldn't solve with his power. "You must be Catherine," he greeted while the thralls came to a halt and held her before their master. "I apologize for the less than formal introductions the first time we met." He grinned, flashing his retracted canines. "I am Duke Jonathan Tremere, the liege lord of this region."

She looked away from him, her face filled with disgust at this inhuman being before her. Tremere sighed, then glanced at his thralls and gestured for them to leave. Only once Girgori and Reidai had left did he continue. "You must be nervous," the vampire said while now pacing about around the girl. No change in her expression as of yet. "Young brides often are, but you need not worry."

With a growl, Catherine turned her gaze toward the vampire, now glaring angrily. "I'd rather die than be a part of your kind!" she spat. Even when she shied away from him, Tremere could see the defiance in her eyes. "You vampires are not even monsters, because to call you that would be an insult to the monsters!"

Such insolence from such a young girl, but it showed that she had promise. It took a certain amount of will to undergo the change from mortal to vampire, and she had that fire in plenty. "I like a woman who has spirit," Tremere remarked flippantly, now stepping toward Catherine. He reached out and held her chin, his blue eyes shining as if they were ice refracting light. "As such, I won't be offended by your rude defiance."

She pulled away from him. While her lips were trembling in fear, the vampire could see that she was holding all the courage she had, trying to still refuse to submit. So typical of humans in this day. "I won't become your bride," Catherine stated confidently. "You'll be dead before you can turn me."

"Oh, the blonde boy?" Tremere grinned when Catherine's eyes went wide. "If you think that he'll be coming to your rescue, my dear Catherine, you're very mistaken, because I've already handled him." A snap of his finger and a shard of mirror glass floated over his hand. Now displayed in the mirror fragment was not Catherine's reflection, but the scene even now playing out in the catacombs below the castle. She could see D in the arms of a blue skinned woman with red hair, and the young hunter wasn't even resisting her. When the girl backed away, shaking her head in denial and fear, Tremere grinned. "Marrigan is quite adept at seducing anyone," he stated calmly. "Regardless of their gender or preferences. Such are her gifts as a succubus, and she feeds on the life-force of all those who become her victims." He glanced down at the projection again, noting how long it had been since the hunter had encountered Marrigan. "You know, any other man would have been drained within minutes but he's already lasted a few hours."

The girl now stared at him in horror. Obviously she did not understand what that meant, but her reaction to her believed savior's fate was no doubt just as fear induced. It also seemed that she didn't know what this hunter was. "Being that he's a dhampir, however," Tremere continued, "I shouldn't have expected any less."

Her lip trembled, fear overcoming her expression. "A dhampir?" she whispered. "But that means...one of his parents was a...a..."

"A vampire," Tremere finished. He threw down the mirror, shattering it against the ground while moving closer to the girl, even as Catherine backed away. "Yes, his father was one of us, a nobleman who had a tryst with some common human woman!" He was grinning widely now as he watched the girl's reaction to learning the truth about her 'hero'. "Vampiric blood flows in his veins, he is descended from our damned blood!"

She shook her head, refusing to believe it. D was so kind, despite his hardened attitude, he couldn't possibly be descended from one of these monsters. "You're lying!" she screamed, still backing away from Tremere. "D isn't one of your kind's bastard children, he's a good person, and I'll never become one of-"

A flash of his eyes, and Tremere held up his hand, causing Catherine to trail off and slump over. He quickly caught the girl, gently stroking her hair while looking out at the moon. "How I hate this moon," he whispered. "But tomorrow night, you shall become one of us. Until then, rest yourself."

* * *

His coat lay on the rocks as D was pressed down on the shoreline of the shallow lake. Marrigan was still on top of him, kissing him passionately while draining the very life from him. His own hands were clasped around her, holding her from the back. It seemed as if he would be drained completely without even putting up a fight.

Marrigan broke away from his lips, smiling while his own eyes narrowed, amusement dancing in those crimson spheres. "You're very full of energy," she stated with a sultry tone. One hand came down to caress his cheek, then traveled over the center seam of his vest. "You will last quite a while, and we haven't even gotten started on the best part yet." That hand went lower, gliding down his leg, then coming up along his inner thigh and touching between his legs. "Oh...and he's well gifted in more than one way."

A deadly gleam flashed in D's eyes. "You have no idea," he whispered, pulling her back into a kiss. Marrigan's free hand searched for the clasp to undo his armor, but D's right hand came around and stopped her. It was then, breaking their kiss and looking at D with a confused expression, that Marrigan realized something. That gleam in his eyes, how filled with control they were; he wasn't under her spell, she was under _his!_

His mouth opened wide, now revealing a set of sharp canines, two on each side of his top jaw while a single pair revealed themselves on the bottom. With a growl, he pulled her down and bit into her neck before she could struggle against him. For a few seconds, she resisted, but then Marrigan moaned, not wanting to fight against his grip now. It felt too good to make him stop.

And then, just as suddenly as he'd revealed himself, D let go and shoved the succubus off of him, sending her crashing into the water. With a grin, D wiped the blood off his mouth, ran over to the crop of rocks to retrieve his coat, then turned to see Marrigan standing up. Being she wasn't human, he hadn't doubted that he couldn't possibly drain enough blood from her.

"Was it good for you?" he asked, now clenching his left fist and forcing the wide blade to extend. His eyes had a feral appearance to them now, shining as they had become feline slits. "I certainly had fun."

The succubus reached up to the left side of her neck, wiping off the blood. True, she'd just about lost herself in his embrace once he'd bitten her, but the boy had just drank back all the life she's stolen from him! Why hadn't she sensed that he was a dhampir before? For that matter, why did he feel so different from a dhampir? "The best I've yet had," she replied silkily, swaying her hips as she stepped toward him. "And believe it or not, I'm being honest, my pretty little dhampir."

That smile suddenly flipped into a tight furious scowl. "I was about to let you go," D stated angrily. His left arm came up, shining the blade of his gauntlet in the artificial light that came down into this lake chamber. "But no one calls me a dhampir, lady."

She blinked, not understanding. Was he not a dhampir? He felt off from how one of the half-damned should, but he was clearly vampiric in his heritage. "Did I offend you?" Marrigan queried. Genuine confusion was on her face now. "You are half-vampire, are you not?"

A small nod. "I'm a half-breed," D replied carefully. "But I'm a dunpeal, not a Kinthea's dhampir."

Ah, so that's why he felt so odd. Come to think of it, he looked rather familiar. They hadn't met before. Had she known his vampire father, perhaps? "The son of a vanpyr lord," the succubus stated. She bowed to him. "My apologies, it's been so long since I've felt your father's kind, ever since Tremere killed Master Greymare." Now her smile returned as she watched D begin to circle her. "Before Tremere came here, I was Greymare's companion, serving as his, how shall we say, donator. We fed on each other in a mutual sustaining relationship."

"Succubi can't die from blood loss," D said calmly. His posture now relaxed, but he still didn't trust this sex demon. "Alright, so why serve Tremere now? He clearly isn't feeding you at all, since you seemed so eager to have your way with me."

Marrigan nodded, looking quite sad now as she brushed back her hair. "I take from whatever poor fools wander in here. Usually they're mutants or thralls that Tremere has found to be too stupid to be of use to him, but since he's been gone for the past five years, I've been rather, shall we say...hungry."

A nod. D well understood this demon's difficulties. "I wish I could say I can relate," he said while readying himself. She needed his life-force to regain the strength she lost from five years of minimal food, but hell be damned if he was going to let her. He had a job to do, and there was no doubt in his mind that Catherine had been captured by now. "Since I am what I am, however, I don't need human blood, nor do I suffer bloodlust."

A smile from the succubus. She knew how a dunpeal's gifts and burdens worked. "And what have you given up in return for that?" she asked, turning and walking toward the shoreline. "You have great strength, the power to see over great distances, and many of the vampire powers are yours." She turned to face him now, one finger pressed against her lips. "Ah, but can you command the beasts of the night, or transform into creatures such as a bat or a wolf?" He didn't reply, meaning she had her answer. "Yes...you gave up the protean powers of a vampire when you were born."

"I don't have time for your game right now," D stated firmly. His eyes looked about for any sign of a way out of the catacombs. "My job is to protect the girl who Tremere has chosen to be his bride, and I intend to do complete that job by killing Tremere."

Marrigan almost smiled with how impressed she was by this hunter dunpeal. Very bold and couragous, and stupidity was not replacing either trait with him. He actually might stand a chance of slaying her vampire enslaver. "I applaud you in your dedication to your work," the succubus replied. Electrical bolts arced over her body now while her eyes went bright blue. "I'm afraid that Tremere has bound me to protect him to all my ability, however."

The gauntlet blade rose again. "I had a feeling it would come to this." D tensed, then raced forward while Marrigan flicked her hand out and unleashed a blast of lightning. The dunpeal quickly leapt up to avoid the attack, landing and swinging at his demon foe. She vanished in a cloud of bats, the swarm flying about before merging back into the succubus. This was going to get very annoying.

His right hand slipped into his coat, pulling out the force gun while D dodged another lighting blast. Set for maximum output, the gun came up and fired, sending a rippling surge that slammed into Marrigan and sent her flying back into the shoreline. D took a moment to look at the gun. Obviously, even in her weakened state, Marrigan was a poweful succubus. She'd survived a full powered burst from his gun. "This is gonn'a get ugly," he muttered while the succubus now leapt into the air and flew toward him.

The golden blade shimmered and shifted back into the main bulk of the gauntlet just as he brought up his hands and fell back in time with Marrigan landing on him. Now bringing his feet up to press against her stomach, D pushed with his feet while pulling with his hands and flinging her over him. He used the momentum to roll back and flip to his feet, turning about while the gauntlet blade extended out again.

A third surge of lightning flew out at him. D gritted his teeth and brought his gauntlet up, catching the barrage with the blade and redirecting it into the ground by stabbing the tip into the sandbar. He pulled back to bring his weapon at the ready once more, taking the chance to now holster his force gun. "I like women who are feisty," he stated while moving to match his foe's circling steps, "but I tend not to like it when they try hitting me with a bolt of lightning."

"And I'm sorry that I'm bound to Tremere's defense," Marrigan replied. The look in her eyes told that she spoke the truth. She must have been very fond of Hyrem Greymare to hate Tremere this much. "Unless he is killed, however, I am not free from his will."

She flew at him again. D readied himself, punching hard as soon as Marrigan was upon him. A powerful blow slammed into the demon's stomach, followed by a backhand swing that cracked against her face. Marrigan stumbled back, disorientated while D took his chance and jumped up with a spin, kicking the succubus in the chest. Once more, she stumbled back, trying to recover from the dizzying blow to her head.

Once more D swung at her with his gauntlet, but she erupted into the swarm of bats and flew about the lake chamber before reforming into her humanoid form. The hunter wasn't sure now if she was trying to kill him or merely stall him. Odds were on the latter, and he felt bad about the possibility that Marrigan might have to be killed in order for him to get out of the catacombs. "If it's any consolation," he intoned while slowly moving toward her, blade now extended again. "I really wish it didn't come to this."

A nod, and the succubus raced toward him. She swung with a blade formed from her dress, catching D on the arm as he dove to the side. The hunter grabbed the wound, catching his breath in the time before it started to heal, then backflipped away in time to avoid another lightning attack. D launched himself into the air as a lightning surge flew at him, coming down behind Marrigan, then slashing her hard with the blade of his gauntlet. A second swing brought the top of the arm guard slamming against her head, and then his hand opened to unleash his own blast of lightning into the demon.

Exhausted, Marrigan stumbled foward, then fell back into D's arms. She looked up into his eyes, and then, thinking back, recognized where she had seen his features before. "Hm, such a dear boy you are," she intoned, caressing his face gently. "You were kind enough not to kill me." A laugh escaped her lips. "I've done all I can to protect Tremere. You've beaten me."

D's eyes narrowed. She sounded sincere, but he couldn't be sure. He carefully helped her stand on her own and watched as Marrigan walked over to her rock seat. "How do I get out of here then?"

She swayed her hips as she walked, then turned back toward D and smiled. "Just go north of here, you'll find the way leading up into the castle." Marrigan returned to her seat, then, seeing that D was departing, sighed lovingly. "You know, your father was a handsome devil."

He stopped, now turning back to face the succubus. There was a gleam in her eyes, and he could see that it was a lusting look she gave him. Marrigan shook a finger at the dunpeal, as if to stifle any jealousy he might have. "You're no slouch yourself, my dear boy." Her head rose slightly. "Now get going."

A smile crept onto D's face as he turned and ran down the way Marrigan had told him of. At least not everything in this castle was a loving servant of Tremere. Now all he had to do was get back into the castle proper and find Catherine. "Wake up, Varda," he snapped at his gauntlet. After a moment, the demon's face appeared on the back of his hand. "We're working overtime tonight."

"So you didn't get your soul sucked out by the succubus," Varda remarked. He actually suspected that D had gone into the whole situation with a plan, but still, he had to prod the young hunter. "Was she any good?"

Leave it to Varda to always assume the most vulgar outcome in a scenario. "Tasted just like cherry soda," D replied. He grinned when Varda gave him the most confounded expression the demon could form on his face. It was nice to make the demon wonder what the hell was indeed going on.

* * *

The castle halls were quiet, with most of the specters that haunted the place now occupied with preparations for the wedding. Reidai silently stalked the main hall, looking up at the sky through the massive windows. No doubt, Grigori was making plans for taking the other sister from that ranch. What to do with the boy however. Well, vampires weren't very picky, so long as their plaything was reasonably attractive. Perhaps for his hard work, Tremere might even consider making him a vampire.

"Me," he muttered to himself. "A noble." The thrall grinned at the thought, now forming a mental image in his mind. Yes, he found such a prospect very likable. Lord Reidai. It had a ring to it.

As he turned the corner, Reidai halted to see that the door to the room where Catherine had been taken was open. Curious, he walked over and looked inside. There, leaning over her, was Grigori, who looked to have a lustful gleam in his eyes. Reidai couldn't blame him; young as she was, the girl was very much an eyecatcher. But was Grigori willing to risk their master's wrath just to indulge that desire?

"I'm not going to do anything to her," the younger thrall stated calmly. He stood upright, now walking to the doorway while giving Reidai a wounded expression. "I'm hurt that you would think so lowly of me." Now the thrall grinned. "Her older sister, however, will no doubt be just as fun to play with."

They departed from the room, now heading down the hallway toward the main ballroom. As Reidai looked up at the moon, he sighed. Truly, waiting for the rewards of service wore one's patience thin. "At least that damned dhampir is dead," he muttered. "Or at least should be soon. I know that Tremere has been starving her for a while now."

Grigori nodded. So sad that he wasn't able to deal with the half-breed himself, but such were orders. Still, he would have liked to have a fight with the hunter. Skill like that would be a great challenge.

Something was coming down the hallway toward them. Running, moving very fast. Who would be in such a hurry? "Who the hell is-"

Appearing out of the shadows, now illuminated by the moonlight, was the young hunter in black. This was unbelievable. By all rights, he should still be in the arms of the succubus, being drained of his life and near death. How was it that he escaped and made his way up into the castle?

D raised his hand, unleashing an electric barrage that slammed into Grigori and sent him flying back several feet to the ground. Reidai didn't even have a chance to move before D jumped up and delivered a solid kick to his head, bring the older thrall down as well. After landing, the dunpeal continued running down the hallway, now finding the open doorway that led to Catherine.

"Dhampir!" Reidai yelled out. He checked on Grigori to find that the younger thrall was alive, but too much in shock to get up. That left it to his underling to handle the situation. "Don't think you can just waltz right out of here with the girl!"

D came to a skidding halt before he turned back to face Reidai. It seemed that the thrall was more resilient than he'd thought. Perhaps he'd be taking another of these mock vampires down before he left with the girl. "Your buddy back at the ranch did rather miserably against me," he stated calmly, taking ready combat stance while Reidai stalker toward him. "Are you you want to risk the same fate?"

There was a snarl from the thrall as he now quickened his pace and ran at the hunter. "I'll make sure you rot in your grave before Duke Tremere's wedding!" he roared, leaping up and coming down with a powerful punch that impacted on the ground and cracked the stone floor. D had lithely leapt away, landing and resuming his stance. Another attack and the dunpeal was up in the air once more, twisting around and landing behind Reidai. He spun on his heel, kicking the thrall in the head again as he turned, then grabbing the man and bringing his right knee up to crack into Reidai's crotch. A second such motion brought D's knee into the thrall's face, sending him falling back after D let go.

Taking stance for a moment before he was sure the thrall was down, D walked past Reidai and continued into the dimly lit room. There, lying under the sheets in bed, was Catherine, dead asleep. "Kinthea domination," he muttered as he walked over to the bed, kneeling down and holding his left hand over the girl. "Varda, can you break this?"

The face formed in the palm of the gauntlet. Varda quickly looked the girl over before nodding. "Yeah, a bit tricky though," he replied. "More powerful than what we usually deal with." He went silent for a moment. Then, Varda's eyes blazed with white light, causing a flash to go over Catherine's body. Seconds later, she stirs, now awake and opening her eyes. Varda's face quickly flushed into the gauntlet before he could be seen.

D held his hand out to her. "Are you alright?" he asked. She looked at him, eyes full of fear now, but she nodded. The hunter pulled her out of bed and helped her stand. His attention turned back toward the bedroom door, making sure that the two thralls were still incapacitated. Good, Reidai was still holding his crotch in pain while Grigori was out cold. "Come on, we've got to get out of here."


	7. Chapter 6: Escape from Shadows

The wedding preparations were still going on, directed by Tremere, when the vampire felt something was wrong. Two flashes of pain from his thralls, and then the sensation of anger. He frowned, ordered his wraithly servants to continue their work, then hurried off down the hallway. Nearing the room where Catherine was supposed to be sleeping, he found Grigori leaned against the wall, still trying to recover from Varda's lighting blast. "What the hell is going on!" the vampire roared.

Grigori groaned as he looked up at his master. "The dhampir is still alive," he reported while now standing up on his feet. "He escaped Marrigan some how and got into the castle. Reidai is after him and the girl right now."

Tremere snarled and spout off a string of vulgarities at the lack of competance in his minions. "Why aren't you with him!"

Another wince. "The dhampir hit me with some kind of lightning power," he replied, almost stumbling. "I couldn't move until just a few minutes before you got here."

With a snarl, the vampire hurried off in the form of a bat. It wouldn't do to punish Grigori; he'd been caught unaware and incapacitated in the first strike. Reidai, however, was going to be in some serious trouble if he failed to recover the girl and deal with that hunter. One single half-breed, regardless of vampiric heritage, should not be causing this much trouble. Who the hell was this boy?

* * *

There were roars from various beasts and monsters as D led Catherine down through the corridors of the castle. Trying to find their way through this centuries old estate was proving to be a nightmare, and that wasn't counting the monsters now looking for them. Tremere, no doubt, had discovered his injured minions and set his castle on alert. "I should have gotten the blueprints on this place before coming in here," the hunter muttered under his breath as he pulled the girl around a corner. There was a pack of barghest not far behind them, leashed by ghostly masters.

Reaching into his coat, D pulled out a small spherical device, pulled the pin, then threw it back just as the monster beasts and their masters came out the corner. With a bright flash, the device erupted into smoke, filling the corridor behind the escapees. One of the barghest stumbled out of the poison cloud, then fell over dead. That solved the problem of their scent being used to track the two, but a group of mutents now came from one of the other hallways.

D pulled Catherine into a niche, hiding while the group of monsters raced past them. He breathed in with relief before turning to check the girl. No further opening of those bite wounds on her neck, and they looked to have almost healed. Tremere had indeed proved to follow Kinthea beliefs about the blood moon. "Once we get back to the ranch, you'll be safe there from Tremere."

The girl gulped. It wasn't Tremere she was worried about right now, it was D. He hadn't told her or her siblings about what he was. While she had refused to believe it before, those pointed ears of his that were now unhidden by his hair spoke the truth; he wasn't completely human. "Will I be safe from you though?" she timidly asked. When he looked at her, perplexed, she again gulped. "Tremere...he told me about what you are, that you're a dhampir."

There was a low growl in the hunter's throat. His eyes flashed, and he had to resist the urge to lash out in response to being called such a thing. "I am not a dhampir," he stated, trying his best to keep his anger under control. He couldn't blame Catherine, being that she probably had never heard of his kind as they were supposed to be called. "Hybrid, yes, but not a dhampir bastard of the Kinthea."

Confusion again. He just admitted that he was a half-breed, but was maintaining that he wasn't a dhampir. "So you're not the son of a vampire?" Catherine asked, her voice hopeful that Tremere had been lying. Granted, the fact that D was a supernatural half-breed wasn't all that comforting, but all the same, if he was something else, it made her feel a bit better.

"I never said that," D replied. He drew out his force gun, leading her out of the niche and back down the hallway to turn into the main corridor. Hopefully it would lead them into the foyer where his motorcycle was waiting for them. "Remember how I told you and your family about how there are many vampiric races?" She nodded. Good, it made this simpler and quicker to explain. "Well, only two races are actually vampires in the strictest sense of the term, the others are just vampiric in how they sustain their existence." He pulled her into an open room, allowing another group of monsters to go by while they hid. While he had the chance, D readjusted the setting on his weapon. "Vetala are wraiths that simply have a host body they permanently use as a shell, they take their food by leaving the body and attacking their victim. Kuei-jin feed on life-energy, not blood, so they're not in the classification of vampires."

That sort of explained it for her, but she clearly still didn't understand. He sighed, looked out the door, and nodded for her to follow him. His left hand was still holding her right while he held his gun in his own right hand. "Most undead races that are vampires are actually Kinthea bloodlines that have taken on certain evolutions," he continued, keeping his senses attentive for any sign of trouble. "Then there's the vanpyr, which are a legitimate second vampire race."

There was the foyer, just ahead at the end of the hallway. It looked like they'd get away home free in just a few minutes once they reached the foyer and got to his motorcycle. "Vanpyr are what you could call daywalkers." D now quickened his pace toward the exit. "Once you get to around the fifth generation and below, sunlight does little more than give a vanpyr an annoying sunburn." Almost there now. He could hear a group of mutants now following them, but it wouldn't matter as soon as they got to that motorcycle.

Odd, there was some kind of mist floating in the foyer. It hadn't been foggy when he'd last looked out a window. Wait, that wasn't fog, that was the mist form of a vampire! D came to a halt and raised his gun as the mist shaped into human form and solidified. It was Tremere, just as he'd feared. Wait a minute. He knew that face. The black hair and ice blue eyes, those features. They had indeed met before, and D could never forget how it was they'd met, the reasons he could never forget that face.

"Arkhm," he hissed. Images of things he'd tried to forget flashed in his mind, old pain returning as fresh as if it all has just happened. In an instant, D pulled the trigger of his gun, firing a force blast that slammed into the vampire and sent him flying back. D pulled on Catherine, leading her out of the hall and into the foyer. A second round from his weapon forced Tremere to shift form into mist again, allowing the two to reach the entry corridor.

There. Still right where he left it was his motorcycle. D quickly tapped on the control keypad on his right arm to deactivate the security system, then opened up one side of the armor paneling. "Get in," he ordered, grabbing his helmet and slipping it on. He turned and fired his gun at the pursuing mutants, noticing that Tremere was gone. All the better. D holstered his weapon, slid in behind Catherine on the motorcycle, then keyed in the code that extended the retracted armor panels back into place.

The start up took a bit, not to mention that he had to program the 'cycle computer to relay a video feed of outside right into his visor. "Hang on," he said while revving the engine. Catherine was clutching tightly to him now, having turned a bit so that she was sitting across in his lap. Not that he minded, but it did prove to be something of a distraction. "This could get rough."

Right foot pushing the gearshift pedal to engage the drives, D turned the control grip sharply to bring the motorcycle about and go tear back down the foyer hallway. A rearview display showed the number of monsters that were racing to catch up with the machine, and a couple were even starting to succeed. Right hand now tapping on the central control board, D waited for confirmation of the overdrive being activated, then gripped the controls tightly. "You might wann'a hold on tight," he said to the frightened girl in his lap. That resulted in her clinging to him like her life depended on it. Moments later, the thrusters ignited, sending the motorcycle screaming down the hall at an incredible speed.

The drawbridge was starting to pull up. That would be his luck now. "I hate it when I have to turn this thing into a gas guzzler," the dunpeal growled while tapping on the control board and causing the overdrive thrusters to flare up even hotter. His foot pressed down on the throttle all the way, causing the speed to increase even more. A pair of mutants were ahead of them, standing in the way to no doubt slow them down. Easily solved by a pair of metal blades that fired out from the front end of the motorcycle and flung them back, the blades lodged deep in their torsos.

The drawbridge wasn't even at a forty-five degree incline when the front wheel hit steel and the motorcycle raced upwards along the bridge. As the bridge continued to rise, the machine kept going up its length, and at last fired off another pair of blades, which flew at the chains and cut right through. The bridge ceased movement for but a moment as its ascent became a rapid descent. As the bridge came crashing back down, the motorcycle bounced slightly from the impact. Inside, Catherine yelped in surprise while D, hidden under his helmet, gave a satisfied grin and tore over the bridge onto solid ground.

Now standing there at the main entry of the castle, Reidai watched his prey escape. He looked back into the castle, then, as he growled, ran off to give chase. "I won't come back until I've killed you, dhampir," he hissed to himself. No doubt Tremere was going to be furious, and right now it was best to go after his target than face the wrath of his master for failure.

* * *

Stalking down through the halls on his way to the ballroom, Tremere did his best to remain calm. Things had already gone wrong with the arrival of this hunter when he had beaten two werewolves and a thrall. Now the girl had been rescued and was now on her way with that half-breed back to the ranch, and there were only a few hours left before sunrise.

Grigori was waiting for him at the entry into the ballroom. "I ask for your forgiveness in my failure," he said, lowering his head. He was ready for any punishment that his master deemed necessary.

Tremere paused for a moment. Almost tempted to lash out at his servant, he then shook his head. It would do no good to inflict pain on his favored minion, especially since there had been nothing Grigori could have done. "I can't afford to dispense punishments on those who have not earned them," he stated while gesturing for Grigori to walk beside him. "Reidai has followed the hunter, no doubt to kill this dunpeal scum, or die trying."

The thrall glanced to his master in confusion. Why had he referred to the half-breed by that ridiculous term that the hunter insisted on being called? "Reidai is well trained, my lord. He will kill the dhampir."

He came to a halt and turned toward Grigori. "Let's drop the act, Grigori. That boy is no dhampir." Tremere growled as he looked upon the work of his ghostly servants. A grand display had been prepared for the wedding this night, when the moon was clear and his bride in his hand. Right now, however, Tremere needed to break these illusions that his favored servant had about this situation, and himself. "Just as you are no thrall."

The young man blinked. He clearly didn't understand at all what his master was talking about. "Sire?" Grigori intoned, unsure what he was being told. "Might I ask what you mean?"

The vampire snorted and threw up a hand. "You're not a thrall like Reidai or Nore," he replied. Now he gestured to his own features. "Have you not figured it out yourself in the three hundred years since I brought you into my service, why you look like me!" No, the young thrall did not understand, but realization was starting to dawn on him. It was about time that the boy used that brain of his. "You're a dhampir yourself, Grigori, my son with a mortal woman, and the reason I favor you over all my other living servants!"

He only stared at his vampire liege. Grigori found it hard to believe that this whole time, in the three centuries he'd served this noble, that he was a half-breed himself. But then he realized that it only made sense. Such was why he was chosen to be Tremere's chief servant even all those years ago. Yet even with the vampire's blood in his veins, he was tainted by human blood, the blood of his human mother. "Then I hope to rise above the human taint in my body when you grant me immortality, as you promised," Grigori said, bowing his head once more. "I wish to have nothing in common with this dhampir who angers you so."

Again, Tremere scoffed at his use of the term. "Don't you get it!" the vampire roared. Now his spectral servants halted in their tasks, wondering why their master was so agitated. "He's no dhampir, he is a dunpeal!" Hm, that was right. He'd told Grigori that the vanpyr were a delusional bloodline, since he'd never expected to encounter their kind again after killing Greymare. Sadly, such had been his own delusion, one that he'd passed on to his dhampir son. "The vanpyr are real, Grigori, and they are dedicated to protecting the humans from the Kinthea by using our own powers against us!" He sighed, now walking away from the ballroom and leading Grigori in the direction of his own quarters. "I was sired by Dracula himself, Grigori. The most legendary of our kind, yet he himself had encountered the vanpyr. They are a race who were born almost fifteen hundred years ago when a crusading knight was transformed into the first vanpyr by the Divine."

"Then why did you not tell me-"

"Because there was no need to," Tremere stated. "When I killed Hyrem Greymare, I thought that he would be the last I saw of their accursed race." He paused now, stopping at the doors of his chambers. "Now listen carefully, Grigori, because this is very important. The dunpeal are their spawn with humans, and this hunter is a dunpeal. He's a powerful one, having escaped from Marrigan is more than enough proof of this. I seriously doubt that even you could kill him on your own."

With that said, the vampire entered his chambers and shut the door behind him. The sun would rise soon, which left Grigori with the task of planning out an assault to kill the dunpeal and recover the girl. While he was at it, he might as well take the older girl for his own and bring their brother along so that he could witness the marriage of his sisters to this vampire house.

* * *

The growling engine roared while the overdrive thrusters continued to burn. Inside the enclosed seating section of the vehicle, D was now re-establishing the transmission link with the orbiting satellite network. It took him a few minutes, but he finally got the data stream going again. So far, nothing was following them, which was definitely a good sign. Time to shut off those gas guzzling thrusters and slow down a bit on the way back to the ranch.

"You've been through more than you deserve," he said to Catherine while keeping his eyes on the road. D took the chance to key open the windshield armor panel, now giving him a real visual out the outside. Resetting the data stream to his helmet, the dunpeal sighed and watched as the normal readouts of speed and distances to his destination were the only things displayed in his visor. "This will all be over soon enough, so you don't need to worry about the vampire and his servants anymore."

She was silent on the trip home. D really couldn't blame her for that, being how much had happened to her. Then there was the fact that she knew what he was. How would her brother and sister react to learning that he himself was half-vampire? Granted, he wasn't one of the Kinthea's spawn, but still, he was what he was. When it came to that, he'd deal with the consequences when they came.

About an hour later, they finally returned to the ranch. The sky was beginning to brighten now with the coming sun, which meant they were safe for the time being. D noticed the damage to the barriers ad he drove the motorcycle into the yard, then saw the torn down wall. That explained how Catherine had been captured. He brought the vehicle to a stop, opened the armor panels to let Catherine and himself out, then re-engaged the armor and security system before following her into the house. Fortunately, Daniel and Iria were still there, alive and well.

"Daniel!" Catherine cried out. Her brother and sister leapt up and ran over to the girl, hugging her tightly. They both looked up to see D standing there and nodded their thanks. The hunter simply walked out and began working on repairs to the barriers.

Just some cut wires that has disrupted power, which also explained why the generator were offline. Seemed that Grigori hadn't done as mush damage as he could have here. D quickly striped open the cables with a finger on his left hand, using the tip of the gauntlet like a knife, then cut the damaged wire ends and began splicing the cable ends back together. "For want of some electrical tape," he muttered just before a roll of the desired material was handed down to him. The hunter looked up, saw that Daniel was the one who offered him the roll, then nodded and used the tape to wrap the patch job before going over to the generator and working on repairs.

"I want to thank you."

His crimson eyes glanced over to the young man. "I was just doing what you hired me for." Strange. All Grigori had done was short out the generator with a hunk of metal against the main conduit. Removing the offending object, D held his left hand around to the damaged section. "Varda," he whispered. "You know what to do."

There was a soft grunt while lightning surged from the gauntlet's fingertips. Moments later, the generator came to life, restoring power on the ranch and bringing the house lights back on. D sighed and pulled his hand out, shutting the maintenance panel and heading back into the house to reset the barriers. The sun would be up in a couple hours, so they had that safety, but it was still a good idea to have the shields on.

He headed toward his room, very exhausted from everything he had done this night. He was hungry as well, but breakfast could wait until after he'd gotten some sleep. Closing the door behind him, D peeled off his coat and threw it onto the desk, then let himself fall onto the bed. "Varda..."

There was that click and the sound of Varda's grafts retracting from his flesh. D slowly pulled the gauntlet off, setting it on the floor since he wasn't in the mood to do much else. He didn't even bother taking his armor off. Instead, D just closed his eyes and passed into sleep, but he could see nothing but the horrible visions of things he never wanted to remember.


	8. Chapter 7: A Secret History

Dawn came at last. D was still fast asleep, and the Rans didn't exactly find much reason to change that. Iria made sure to set aside a large plateful of breakfast for when he finally woke up, and Daniel went off into town for a replacement cable for the barrier, since D's repairs had been a quick fix at best and probably wouldn't last too long.

It was Catherine who was the most concerned about the hunter they had hired. She was pouring through all the books they had on the vampires and such creatures. None mentioned anything about 'vanpyrs', but still, she knew what a dhampir was, and D was obviously one, even if he refused to let himself be called that term. But she still had to look, give him the benefit of a doubt. He hadn't seemed to have a bloodlust like she'd heard dhampirs suffered from, and he was quite at home in the sunlight, which caused dhampirs what was called heat syndrome; an overload of sunlight would make their bodies lock up until they could bury themselves in the earth, shielded from the sun's rays.

None of the history books held anything. Perhaps there was something in the old novels her family had kept collected over the years. Many of the fictional tomes were reprints of books originally published before the war, and yet despite being works of imagination, they sometimes held a bit of truth which history and studies of the supernatural omitted. Various titles were in that area of the collection; Varney the Vampyr, Carmilla, Vampire Chronicles... Hours of reading, and she found nothing which helped in her search for answers. Even several books written on dhampirs yielded little other than what she already knew. Very few marks of the half-damned fit D, yet those that did were unmistakable.

Wait. He claimed his name was D, and that he wasn't like anyone she nor her family had ever met before. Where had she heard that name before though? Was it from a book she'd read? It sounded so familiar, as did this entire situation.

Now going back through the book, she came across an old hardbound book, one that had a detailed illustration on the cover. The title right away gave her the answer she was looking for, and as she opened the book, she found that something was very disturbing now about the story, despite that she had read it before.

"'Though the voice of her opponent was low, and she could barely pick it out over the snarling of the wind, it sounded like the voice of seventeen or eighteen year old youth,'" she read aloud. No, that didn't fit their hunter. His voice did not at all sound low, it was more high-pitched than one would imagine for such a battle hardened person. He did sound as young as he looked, though that was a point against such comparison. But his eyes, they seemed to speak of countless years that he had experienced. She continued reading, and then realized that even if she wanted to, she couldn't ask D for answers right now. He'd earned this rest, even if he was half-vampire. She owed him that much.

* * *

The young hunter groaned as he finally woke up. Groggy, but aware, he pulled himself out of bed and set up. Still clad in his armor. It was amazing he'd actually gotten any sleep in that stuff. Still, it was sleep he'd needed.

Something smelled good. The Rans must have left him some breakfast. What time was it anyway? Probably near noon, since he'd finally gone to bed sometime just before dawn. "Good thing I'm hungry," he muttered while he got up. D glanced over to where Varda lay on the ground, then smirked and headed for the door. He was going to spend his breakfast without that annoying loudmouthed demon for once.

He stepped down the hall, following the scent to the kitchen where he found Daniel fixing himself some lunch. "D!" the young man exclaimed in surprise. "I was wondering when you'd wake up."

A nod from the hunter as he followed the scent of food to the oven. Inside was a plate of hash browns, pancakes, and scrambled eggs, still waiting for him. "Saved me some leftovers?" D remarked while grabbing the plate and sitting down at the table. He threw some butter on the pancakes, along with syrup, then proceeded to start eating.

With a plate of chicken in hand, Daniel sat down at the table as well. "I wanted to thank you," he said while looking at the hunter. "For saving Catherine last night."

D waved his hand before popping some of the egg into his mouth. "Like I said last night, it's what you hired me to do," came the reply. He paused, sprinkled salt onto the eggs and hash browns, then continued eating. "Besides, Tremere and I have an old score to settle."

There was a look of perplextion on Daniel's face. So D and Tremere had crossed paths before, it seemed. That would explain why D was taking such an interest in this job. There was no doubt quite a story to that. "Catherine's been waiting for you to get up," the boy continued flippantly. He looked outside to where Iria was riding one of the horses around the small coral. "Don't know why, she said there was something she wanted to talk to you about."

A large forkful of pancakes went into his mouth. D didn't reply, being he had a feeling he knew what this was about. However, it seemed as if Catherine had not informed her siblings about what she had learned about their hired hunter. Interesting, though the reason why was what irked his thoughts. He'd have to find out what she wanted to talk to him about.

With his breakfast polished off and the plate in the sink, D went out to find Catherine. When he finally found her by the stables, she was actually smiling at him. Odd considering that only the night before, she had been quite frightened of him and what he was. "Daniel said you were looking for me."

A nod from the girl. She acted quite cheerful now compared to before. In fact, she was acting much more comfortable around him than her siblings did. Iria always seemed so perturbed around him, and it was no wonder why, while Daniel seemed unsure as to how he felt with that deadly aura. Catherine, however, seemed to now be enjoying the air that D produced about him. "I was thinking about what you told us when I met you," she said, her hands behind her back while she swayed back and forth. What was she hiding behind her? "How you call yourself D, said you're not like anyone we've ever met, and how you insist that you're not a dhampir, despite being half-vampire."

So that's what was going through her mind now. "Like I told you," D replied, the calm in his voice strained. "There's more than one race of vampires."

"Which led me to look through the books we have." Catherine brought her hands out from behind her now, showing the old hardcover she was holding. The illustration was of a handsome man with long brown hair, wearing a black suit, a cloak, and a large black hat. In his arms, while the cloak billowed about, was a woman with long blonde hair, outfitted in a regal dress. Both characters in the illustration were mounted upon a cyborg horse. "D isn't your real name, and I find it interesting that you named yourself after a fictional dhampir."

For a moment, his eyes flashed angrily. The, he took a breath and shook his head. He knew that book all too well. "And thus, I suppose you find it interesting how that book pertains to what's happening to you and your family, even as much as some of the main characters sharing your family name."

Now that, she didn't get. "But the family in the book are the Langs."

Yes, something he was aware of in more common copies. "The original translator took some personal liberties with names," D stated calmly. He walked over to where his motorcycle rested, reached into a compartment on the side, and pulled out a small satchel bag. From in that, he withdrew a rather worn-out and beat up hardbound book that had the same cover art as the hardbound book Catherine was carrying. "They're supposed to be Doris and Dan Ran, your family name."

Now she understood what he'd meant. It wasn't just events that were frighteningly similar, it was the _people_ as well. "Doris..." Catherine gulped. This was actually very frightening now. "Doris was my mother's name," she whispered. After a moment, she looked out to where Daniel was tending to the sheep. "And Daniel..."

A nod. " I know," D replied. He slipped the small book back into the satchel bag and returned it to the motorcycle compartment. "And I didn't get the name D from the book, I got it by getting rid of the other four letters in my name." He turned now, walking out of the stable.

Her curiousity got the better of her now. After making sure that D was gone, Catherine opened the compartment, took out the satchel bag, and got the old book out. Opening it, she read through and found all kinds of small notes that had been slipped in between pages, noting translations and errors that translated copies apparently had made. But the text of the book itself was all in a language and writing system she didn't recognize. At the back, there was what looked like the back of an old weathered photograph and something scrawled on the picture's back..

"'Best of luck to a faithful reader,'" she read. The English was discernable, but the signature was in the same writing system as the book itself. Wait, there was a date. "June fifteenth, two thousand and..."

With a gasp, Catherine dropped both books to the ground. This wasn't possible, even if D was a dhampir. The vampire half-breeds only lived a few hundred years on their own, and even those that lived longer were significantly aged. A dhampir at the age this would suggest would look like they were in their elder years. But D was no more than sixteen or seventeen in appearance, and he was so full of life and energy, like an adolescent. No, this must have belonged to one of his human ancestors and had been passed down through his mother's family

Now picking up both of the books again, she once more saw the old photo, except now it was facing her from the front. Standing there, on one side, was the author of the novel. Catherine recognized him from the small biography in the back of her copy, but the other person...it shattered any rational explanation she had for who and what D was. Standing there next to the book's author was D himself, dressed in what was the style of the time in the pre-war era. He looked so normal, so happy, yet in his eyes could be seen a horrible sadness.

Who was he? Was D indeed the person depicted in the book? Was he some heroic figure that was almost out of the very stories she'd read as a child, come to save her and her family from the vampire terror which plagued them? But how could he be so young still after four hundred years? If he was really that old, that meant he'd been around since _before_ the war.

Someone was coming. Catherine shoved the satchel bag and book back into the compartment, grabbed her book, then hide behind one of the housing doors. As luck would have it, D had come back. Wait, was he talking to someone?

"Kid, I know you like getting to know the cute girls better, but you are risking a lot by telling her even that much!" came a raspy voice. It didn't sound like D at all, but there was no other person in there with them. "And that's not going into to showing her that damned book! I told you that you should get rid of that thing!"

The boy gave a snort while walking over to his motorcycle. He slid into the driving seat, tapped on the control board's keypad, then smirked while looking to the golden gauntlet on his left arm. "I got that thing signed by Kikuchi just before the war broke out," he replied to the raspy voice. "Like hell I'm gonn'a throw it out."

Was the source of the other voice his gauntlet? Some kind of communications device, perhaps. Yes, that would explain it. No, wait. There was something _moving_ on that thing. A _face_? What the hell was going on?

"Keeping that thing is asking for trouble," the voice stated. It sounded agitated, not to mention very upset with D. Was that gauntlet alive? How else did it speak and have its own face which was even now shifting about on the metal object. "It's like that girl you helped out during the wraith job in the Balkans. What was her name...Lina...Reina..."

"Leila," came the very nonchalant answer. D sighed and began reading something that was being displayed by that motorcycle of his. "That was one hell of Kikuchi moment if I ever had one."

The gauntlet gave a grunt, then suddenly shifted its face around. Surely it hadn't seen her. "Uh, D...there's someone else in here with us." Oh god, it could sense her!

The hunter jumped up from in his vehicle and looked around. His left fist clenched, causing a wide blade to form from one of the protruding spikes of the gauntlet. "Catherine," he whispered before his eyes shifted into feline slits. "Cathy, I know you're in here, just come on out." A pause as he waited for an answer. After a moment, he let his hand relax and the blade retracted back into the gauntlet. "I'm not going to hurt you."

She held her breath before finally giving a sigh and standing up from behind the trough. "I'm sorry," the girl said while watching the hunter's eyes return to normal. "I didn't mean to listen in on you, but, I was..."

"I knew it!" The gauntlet's face was very visible now, staring at Catherine from the back of D's left hand. "She read through that damn book, I told you that thing was trouble!"

For a moment, D was still. Then he suddenly banged his left hand against one of the stable support pillars, causing the gauntlet to yell out in pain. "Shut up already," he hissed before returning his attention to Catherine. Right now, he had to ascertain just how much she'd found out about him. "I take it you got a little too curious," D asked. Catherine nodded, leading him to walk over and continue the interrogation. "Just how much of your curiosity found answers?"

The girl gulped. She most certainly did not like where she imagined this going. "I...found the note in the back of the book," she answered. "And the...the picture of...of you and..." She dared not continue. Catherine knew she'd said enough though.

"Me and Hideyuki Kikuchi," D finished. The girl only nodded, but it was more than he needed now. That meant she knew just about how old he really was. "And you know that dhampirs only live about three to four hundred years." Another nod. Well, time to explain all about his kind now. "But you've never heard of a dunpeal, have you?"

The gauntlet was acting up again. "D!" it hissed scoldingly. "Just how much are you going to-OW!" Another hard slam into the wooden beam got it to shut up again.

"Dunpeal?" she asked. He was rather close to her now, and Catherine found that she was being backed up against the wall. "What's a...dunpeal?"

There was that smile now. "Vanpyr half-breed," D replied, he took a step back, allowing Catherine some breathing space while he went into an explanation. "As I said, vanpyrs are a difference vampire race from Kinthea. They don't need human blood to live, but they do need it to fuel strength and their powers. And like Kinthea, they can breed." Again, his eyes became like those of a cat, as if to accent his point. "We're called dunpeals, and unlike dhampirs, we don't age after certain points in our aging. That's why I'm still physically a teenager even though I'm over four hundred years old."

"And Tremere," the girl added. Now D's expression went dark. It was obvious he wasn't too happy about that shift in topic. "You acted like you know him when he tried to stop us."

D didn't answer right away. He was clearly conflicted with how much he wanted to reveal to this girl. "We have a history," he stated at last. His eyes narrowed as he turned away form Catherine. "But I knew him as Arkhm, and I've been hunting for him ever since four hundred years ago."

Something terrible had occurred between this half-breed hunter and the vampire she knew as Jonathan Tremere. But what was it? Could be what had made D what he was now? If so, should she pry into the history they shared? Certainly, she was curious, but unsure if it was worth risking his anger. "Might I...um...well..."

"He killed everyone I cared about."

Well, that was rather forthcoming and bluntly put. No wonder D was so upset when he'd seen Tremere. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I shouldn't have asked."

He shrugged. A simple gesture, but it was enough to let her know that he wasn't angry with her for asking. "It's funny, I normally wouldn't tell people this much about myself." D glanced to the girl, and there was a faint smile on his lips. "I guess the reason is because you remind me of an old friend of mine." A sigh now as he leaned against one of the fencings. "Back then, all I wanted to do was find Arkhm and kill him for what he did to me."

"Destroying your life."

In his mind, D could see a flash of that horrible night. Screams of horror. A teenage boy with pale blonde hair like his own, a pair of metal stakes imbedded in his chest while a broadsword covered in blood was driven though his neck to pin him to the wall. A blonde girl, her body on the floor three feet from where her head lay. A brunette woman, lying dead in pool of her own blood with bullet wounds and deep gashes all over her body. Everything he'd tried to forget, everything that had made him into what he was. Seeing Tremere brought it back. The things he had seen that night, and ever since, almost made him wonder if he'd lost his mind.

The hunter sighed, shaking his head in order to banish those memories. He didn't want to relive the horrible things he'd been through so long ago, and he wanted to make sure this girl and her family would not suffer like he did. But with Tremere involved, it was hard not to remember, and it made things so much more personal.

His eyes shifted to look at Catherine. "Make no mistake," D stated calmly. "Tremere is going to pay for what he did to both your family and me."

* * *

It was long after sunset when the black carriage came into the village. Anyone who saw it knew instantly that the coach belonged to Tremere, and as such got out of its way to give it a very wide berth. Its destination was a local inn, and as it came to a halt, the ghostly driver merely gestured to the carriage door to open it.

A figure cloaked in black stepped out. There was a heavy breathing from under the cloak, but no one dared to go near this being. The figure looked around, then nodded to the driver before entering the inn. The owner of the inn was trembling in fear the moment he saw the figure. Scared that this being had come to kill him, he stepped back and pressed against the wall behind him. "Ho-how can I he-he-help you?" he nervously stuttered.

"I'm looking for a tall man," the vampire's envoy stated through the heavy breathing. Close enough for the innkeeper to see under the hood of the cloak, the source of the heavy breathing was a complex network of tubes connected to a rebreather. "He has grey hair streaked by red, and he goes by the name of Reidai."

The innkeeper slowly pointed down the hallway. "Room six." The man gulped, not sure whether or not he was grateful that he was not the target of this creature's search.

The envoy nodded and moved down the hall. One clawed hand reaching out, it took only a gesture for the knob to turn and the door to swing open. Reidai was standing there, as if he'd been expecting this visit. Nothing was said as the creature stepped into the room and shut the door behind him. "Reidai, I have been sent by Duke Tremere."

A simple nod in reply. Reidai had indeed been expecting this visitor. "I suppose that you're here to execute me for my failure to kill the dhampir," he stated calmly. He already knew what was to be his fate, or so he assumed.

"Me, kill you?" the creature replied. From the tone of the envoy's voice, such an idea was indeed a surprise. "Don't be ridiculous, I am no match for your skill."

This was indeed a surprise. If this envoy was not to be executioner, then why had he been sent to find the errant thrall? "Lord Tremere has something else in store for me then."

The envoy nodded and withdrew a rusty broadsword from under his cloaks. "Our master sends this to aid you in slaying the half-breed." It expected that confused look from the thrall. "It is wrought iron, Lord Tremere says that it will help you greatly in your impending battle with the hunter."

He reached out with his right hand and grasped the handle of the sword. Yes, it was pure iron as the creature claimed. The large patches of rust were more than enough evidence for that, yet the hilt of the weapon was in good condition in comparison to the very rusted blade. "How shall this sword help against a dhampir?"

The envoy didn't answer. It wasn't sure itself how such a poorly crafted weapon would help defeated such a powerful half-breed that this hunter had proven to be, but it dare not argue with its master. "Lord Tremere's wisdom should not be questioned."

With a frown, Reidai nodded to the creature. He continued to look at the sword after the envoy had departed. How would cold iron help against a dhampir? They had no weakness to iron, it was the bane of fae and the yakshis. Or did Tremer know something that his thralls did not? Such would be seen indeed soon enough.

* * *

Grigori waited for the return of the envoy. When he saw the carriage approach, he turned and hurried to Tremer's throne room, where he knelt before the vampire and bowed. "Your messenger to Reidai has returned," he stated. After a moment, he heard the grunt that was a gestured to stand. "Might I ask, master," the dhampir continued as he rose to his feet, "how an old iron sword will help against the dunpeal?"

Rising from his throne, Tremere smiled and bade his son to walk with him. The boy had yet to adapt around the notion that he was Tremere's child instead of some servant thrall, but soon enough he would grow accustom to it. "In my many long centuries since Lord Dracula sired me," the vampire began, "I have learned many of the vanpyr's secrets, and those of their spawn." They walked down the hall toward the ballroom. Preparations for the wedding were still being made, since the ceremony had now been postponed until Catherine was recovered. "Dunpeals are an oddity, Grigori. Some are afflicted with the same weaknesses as dhampirs, while others are not."

There was something in there. "But," Grigori intoned for his father.

The vampire smiled. Yes, Grigori was a clever child. "But, in exchange for these immunities, they give up vampiric powers, such as domination, the protean powers of shapeshifting, and the command of beasts." He paused now as the entered the ballroom. With the extra time to prepare, his ghostly servants had made this display even more lavish. Excellent, this would allow him to show off his power to his bride-to-be. "Yet, they all share one weakness that cannot be undone by any force, and as such, Reidai will kill this hunter."

There was something obvious about what Tremere had sent his thrall that Grigori was missing. Wait, the material of the sword was not just any iron, but wrought iron. It was the iron that made the sword so significant. "The bane of a dunpeal is cold iron," he stated. To his pleasure, his father gave a prideful smile and nodded. "All Reidai has to do is strike the hunter down with that sword and stake him through the heart."

Indeed, all those centuries of training this boy and leading him into the illusion that he was a thrall had been worth it. By not telling Grigori of his true nature, the dhampir had worked harder to earn his father's favor, on his own earning the promise of immortality as a vampire. "And then this silly matter will be concluded."


	9. Chapter 8: And Terror Reigns

Midnight. Hours before the dawn would come, but Reidai wanted to end this conflict now. He wasn't sure as to how this rusted iron sword would help against the vampire hunter, but it was best not to question his master's wisdom. The trouble now was waiting for the right moment and opportunity to call the hunter out.

Perhaps the town could help in that regard. Reidai smiled and looked out the window toward the city hall. He had overheard quite a bit a resentment toward the vampire hunter and the Rans for protecting a girl marked by the vampire. If he played his cards right, he could get them to do most of the work for him.

With the broadsword sheathed on his back, Reidai leapt out the window, vampiric powers granted him allowing the thrall to land deftly on the ground as if he'd only fallen a few feet. He could hear voices from in the city capitol, which meant that the mayor and his advisors were still up, discussing the situation. Excellent.

Now leaping up from the ground to the roof of city hall, Reidai carefully opened one of the rooftop windows, slipped inside, then made his way down toward the mayor's office. He could hear the argument that was still going on. Words said about that damn hunter, how they wanted to run him out of the area and dispose of the Rans. Well, while he agreed with them on the first point, Reidai could hardly allow them to terminate his master's chosen bride, and the older sister who Grigori had taken an interest in.

Calmly opening the door, Reidai entered just as the men inside the office went silent. Judging form their expression, they'd thought he was that half-breed freak. "Don't mind me," he stated while smiling. "I'm just someone who feels we can all help each other." He leaned against the wall, acting as if he was trying not to be noticed. It wasn't working. "Please, continue your discussion. I'm interested in how you plan to get rid of the dhampir."

Mayor Rodham's eyes went narrow as he glared at the thrall. "What dhampir?" he hissed. Realization suddenly dawned then when Reidai didn't reply. "Wait, you mean that hunter the Rans have hired!"

Humans. So slow in understanding, yet so amusing when they did realize the truth. "Oh, you mean you didn't know?" Reidai grinned while pushing away from the wall and standing upright. "That hunter is a dhampir, half-vampire himself. I don't know what your views toward them are, but..." He didn't continue, nor did he need to in order to play on the fears of these simple, greedy men. Reidai had seen over a hundred years of humanity thanks to his master's favor, and nothing ever changed about those in power; they always desired more power in addition to that they already had. "I'm sure that we could help each other in this matter." Reidai moved to leave now. "Though it seems you don't require my help."

Some of the men in the room moved to stop him from leaving. Good, just like he wanted. Reidai turned back toward Rodham, that grin on his face very blatent now. "Or am I wrong in my view of your actions?"

The mayor was silent for a long moment. He knew that this man was a servant of Tremere, a thrall who was granted vampire powers through the gift of Tremere's blood, yet not quite touched by the curse of the vampire in full. If he was offering his service, then it meant that either Tremere was willing to make a deal with the city, or this thrall was in rebellion against his master. No, this man was definitely no rebel. "You would handle the hunter?" Rodham asked cautiously. Reidai nodded, which prompted the mayor to continue. "What's the catch?"

Once more, Reidai laughed. "No talk of 'eliminating' the Rans," he stated. "They are to be handed over to my master Tremere. In return, his quarrel with your insignificant little hamlet will be lifted, and I will kill the dhampir hunter."

It was a deal with the devil, no denying it. If they agreed to this bargain, then the city would be indebted to the vampire. He already ruled over this place, however, no matter what illusions Rodham might present to the people. This was their only way of resolving the issue, and getting rid of that damn hunter. "Get rid of the dhampir," Rodham stated through clenched teeth. "Their kind aren't wanted around here."

Oh, indeed. "Not without the leash of their vampire sires on their neck, I agree." Reidai chuckled and motioned for the men to get out of his way. Fortunately for them, they were smart enough to do so. "Go now to the Rans' farm and take them into custody. I will challenge the dhampir and kill him, mayor. After that, you are to deliver the Rans to the castle before dawn."

With that, he left, leaving the mayor and his men to resume the discussion, However, now it was on how they would rally the town to storm the farm, bring out the hunter, and capture the Rans to hand them over to the vampire. Reidai allowed himself a prideful laugh as he left city hall. Humans like these politicians were concerned only with saving their own hides, and if someone else took the fall for them, all the better. So easy to predict and to manipulate. It was no wonder the vampires had ruled before. Mortals were at large such stupid creatures that they could not survive without the nobility to guide and control them.

* * *

The gauntlet shifted minutely while D slept. The barriers were on, set to full, yet Varda could feel that something was wrong. He could hear something approach the farm. Who would be coming here at this hour from the town, though?

"D," he whispered. The hunter was still asleep. Damnation, that boy could be a heavy sleeper at the worst possible times. "D!" the gauntlet demon now screamed. "Get your ass up!"

A groan as the dunpeal blindly swat about and finally grabbed a boot which was summarily tossed at Varda. "Shut the hell up," he growled. "I'm trying to get some sleep."

Oh yeah, this was definitely the smart-mouthed punk he knew. Now was not the time for it though. "D, someone is coming to the farm from the town, and they do _not_ sound friendly!"

That got the hunter out of bed. He shook his head, trying to wake up more before he pulled his boots on, locked his armor onto his body, then grabbed Varda and slipped the gauntlet onto his left arm. "Daniel!" he cried, now heading down the hallway and stopping at the stairs. No time for his coat, but his force gun was quickly slipped into the harness just under his arm. "Daniel, Iria, we've got trouble!"

He could hear the yells of anger now. D turned and saw a series of torchlights approaching. Eyes shifting to feline form, he could see that a mob was coming up from the town, and at the head of the mob was Rodham. "What the hell does that idiot think he's doing?" the dunpeal hissed. He looked back up the stairs to see Daniel and Iria coming down, armed and ready. His own eyes shifted back to normal while he looked to the oldest of the Ran siblings. "Iria, you wake up Catherine and keep her safe." That crimson gaze shifted to Daniel now. "Daniel, stay at the front door. I don't know what that fatass bureaucrat is up to, but I don't like this."

The young man nodded as he followed D to the door. The hunter threw the door open and drew his firearm in time to see Rodham and several armed men standing just on the other side of the barrier. "What the hell do you want, Rodham!"

"Lower the barrier!" the mayor ordered. One of the men cocked his shotgun while another aimed the rifle in his hands. "The Rans are to turn themselves over to us, and you are to get the hell out of our town, dhampir!"

A low growl rumbled from in his chest. Being called a dhampir was bad enough, but how the hell had Rodham found out he was a half-breed? "Don't you dare insult me like that," D hissed angrily. His own force gun came up, now set to full charge. "The Rans and I are going nowhere, not until I've killed Tremere!"

A nod from the mayor sent a pair of men out to the barrier fence. In their hands were explosives, and if those were set off near the generators, it wouldn't matter if the barrier was active or not. "Either shut down the barrier and allow this to proceed easily," Rodham stated, "Or _we_ will shut it down."

There was no way to win. Somehow, Rodham had found out about his own half-blood nature. But how? He'd never given any signs of his heritage as a half-vampire, and there were so many supernaturals who had the power to shift their eyes like he had in front of the mayor. Someone had told Rodham, only instead of the truth, they told him that he was a dhampir. Certainly Catherine hadn't, she didn't dare go into town since she'd been bitten, nor would she betray his trust. Hell, she hadn't even told her own family yet.

Tremere. The vampire warlord had sent someone to tell Rodham of his half-breed nature and work the village into a frenzy. No doubt that in exchange for that vital information, Tremere had demanded the Rans as payment for safety from his wrath. Well, like hell D was going to concede defeat. "Blow those generators," he stated, aiming his weapon directly at Rodham, "and the first round from this will blow your head open like a tomato, you self-righteous coward."

That was enough to stop the men holding the explosives. D breathed a sigh of relief, but he didn't have to look back to know that Daniel was very afraid of this whole situation. Now the whole town was out to get rid of them. Hell be damned if this job didn't keep getting more and more annoyingly difficult.

The barrier suddenly went out. No one had blown the fence generators, so why had the barriers failed so suddenly? That question wasn't what mattered now; the town was coming toward them again. D backed away to protect Daniel, ready to fire at the first person who tried to attack. "All of you, back the fuck off!" he screamed. When one of the riflemen aimed his gun and fired, D was a split-second faster in pulling the trigger. That same rippling blast shot out of the gun, disrupted the energy burst from the rifle, and slammed into the man, causing him to explode into a spray of blood and internal organs. "I mean it!" The gun quickly readied for another shot, aimed once more at Rodham. "All of you get the fuck away from here, because I will _not_ hesitate to protect these three!"

Yes. Sometimes lethal force was the only way to get people to listen, because the advancing mob came to a halt the moment that D had blown apart that first assailant. They couldn't back away immediately, but given the time, they'd withdraw. So he hoped, at least.

There was a laugh now, from deep in the crowd. A flash and a tall man with red-streaked grey hair flew over the crowd, landing just in front of Rodham. He chuckled while rising up and looking right at D. "Bravo," he said, clapping his hands for a few moments before flashing a grin. "Very well played, dhampir."

Once more did a furious growl come up from D's chest. His force gun was aimed right at Reidai now. Without a doubt, this was how Rodham had learned of his half-vampire heritage; Reidai had told him. There was some bargain that had been made between the thrall and the mayor and it didn't take took much to guess was it was; Reidai got rid of the hunter, the town handed the Rans over to Tremere. "I should have known you were behind this," D hissed to his enemy. He slowly holstered the force gun, since splattering the thrall all over the mob wouldn't do much good. It would be better to kill him the old fashioned way. "Your master the one who set all this up?"

A grin to flash his canines. "Very clever." Reidai's right hand came up to grip the handle of the sword that was strapped to his back. "By Tremere's authority," he called out so that everyone could hear him. "I have made a bargain with the leaders of Runsalva! I kill the dhampir, they shall deliver the Rans, _alive_, to my master!"

D clenched his left fist. "And what if I kill you?"

A shrug. "Then they leave you all be." Now there was an arrogant gleam in Reidai's eyes as he pulled the sword out and slammed the blade to the ground. "But I seriously doubt you can beat me, dhampir."

With the farm lights now on, D could see the blade of the broadsword; as rusted as it was old, but not all the red spots on that weapon was rust. There was centuries old dry blood on there, blood he knew, just as well as he knew this sword. His eyes went wide as he recognized it, and all the anger he'd tried to hold back, all the pain he'd tried to forget from four hundred years ago came back. This wasn't just some duel between a thrall and a vampire hunter; it was a challenge, and whether Tremere knew it or not, sending this blade to his servant was an insult rivaled only by D's ingrained hatred of being called a dhampir.

His eyes shifted into slits as the two-and-a-half foot long blade erupted out from his gauntlet. Even Reidai took a step back upon seeing the rage that was burning in D's eyes. "Did your master tell you who I am?" he spat while taking a step toward Reidai. "Did he tell you why that sword is important!"

The thrall frowned and raised the sword. "It's wrought iron," he replied. Yes, D was hesitating now. Maybe there was some kind of dhampir weakness to iron that he hadn't learned about before. What a perfect time to test it out. "You fear iron, don't you?" The hunter was cautiously backing away. Confirmation of his theory. "You're afraid of iron, aren't you, dhampir!"

"D!" Varda hissed. The demon could feel Reidai's eyes staring at it in shock, but now was not the time to try and hide secrets like this. "D, he's trying to goade you into this, stop losing your cool every time some asshat calls you a dhampir!"

The dunpeal tightening his fist. "This isn't about that," he growled to his companion. "That sword...Arkhm used that sword to kill everyone I cared about, pinned my brother to a wall through the neck with that god damn piece of shit!"

The demonic face blinked. He had never known about this part of his owner's past. "Oh shit," Varda whispered as he realized nothing was going to calm D down now. Crowd out for blood to back him up or not, Reidai was going to learn why it was a very bad idea to piss this particular half-breed off. "You know how I normally tell you to keep a level head about things?" The demon suddenly narrowed his eyes and grinned while the blade extended out another six inches. "For this one, forget I ever said that, and rip this clotsucker a new one."

The gauntlet clad left hand came up, shining a reflection of light off the wide blade. D narrowed his eyes at Reidai, then finally flashed a vicious grin and let his fangs extend out. "I hope you are ready to burn in Hell," the hunter stated coldly. A flash of light in his eyes, and he raced toward the thrall, golden blade coming down to defend just as Reidai attempted an upward swing. Right arm coming around, D brought his fist crashing into the thrall's face, causing the man to stumble back. The gauntlet blade was narrowly parried by the iron sword, sparks crackling as Reidai brought his weapon up and scraped the golden edge of Varda.

With a roar, the thrall swung, blade cutting only air while D retracted the gauntlet blade and dipped back to flip away. Feet on the ground, he raised the gauntlet in time to catch a slash, blade extending out to a full three feet again. A wicked grin was on his lips as D leapt up and brought his right foot slamming into Reidai's head, landing and spinning to bright his left crashing into the man's ribs. There was a meaty smack as the solid blow connected, causing Reidai to stumble aside. This hunter didn't seem at all one bit tired, but how?

Another swing with the broadsword was deflected away by D's own gauntlet blade. The hunter brought his right fist around to backhand Reidai, then stuck the man square in the chest with a kick that sent him flying back into the ground. Sadly, that didn't even seem to slow the thrall down, because he got back to his feet, sword in hand while a wooden stake was now drawn from in his boot. "I'm going to cut your throat, dhampir," the thrall hissed angrily. "And then I'm going to drive this stake right through your heart to make sure you're dead!"

D didn't even dignify that with an answer. He simply brought up his now open left hand to unleash a volley of lightning that caught Reidai's own left hand and forced him to drop the stake. A second volley was blocked by the iron sword, channeled aside by the blade. The gauntlet blade was brought up to parry a thrust, now catching Reidai in the leg with a quick slice. The thrall yelled out, turning sharply to see D standing there, face completely neutral while he raised the gauntlet to reveal the blood now on its blade edge. This wasn't arrogance the hunter was displaying; it was confidence, pure and undeniable confidence. He _knew_ that he could tear his enemy to pieces, and he was holding back. Why?

"You're not taking this seriously," the hunter calmly stated while Reidai raised his sword up to ready posture. "You're acting like this is a game, like you believe you could kill me any time you want." D reached up to pull back the hair covering his ears, revealing their pointed ends. "And you seem to be under the delusion that I'm a dhampir."

"You are a dhampir!" Reidai screamed. There was nothing else this freak of nature could be, regardless of all his claims to the contrary. "None of this 'dunpeal' bullshit, boy! You're the son of a vampire, born to some human whore, and the blood in your veins is filthy from your human mother!"

Those crimson eyes brightened into a maddening red color. His fangs extended as full as they could, no more hiding his vampire blood. D let out a roar as he charged at Reidai, slamming the blade of that iron sword away even as it was coming up to strike. Driving the blade of his gauntlet right through the thrall's chest, D only growled while Reidai coughed blood out onto his face. The dunpeal didn't care though. He could feel the burning sting that was the wound inflicted from the iron blade. He'd parried it, but so sloppily that it had cut his face, and the smoke coming from the wound was very visible. It didn't matter though. Reidai lost his grip on the weapon, dropping it to the ground while his own blood poured down the length of Varda's blade, dripping off onto the soil.

Another cough spattered more blood on D's face. "What are you?" the thrall asked weakly. "You're no dhampir...who are you?"

It was then that D shoved Reidai off the blade of his gauntlet and brought his blazing eyes up to stare down the townspeople. Foremost in his attention was Rodham himself, the man who had organized this damn mob. "Tremere's puppet is dead," he hissed angrily. Kneeling down, D picked up the sword by the handle and returned his gaze to the mayor. "You doubt me after seeing that, then send in the next idiot who wants to fuck with me!"

No one moved or spoke. For several long minutes, the crowd was silent. Those that had seen what happened couldn't believe the furious raw power that this hunter possessed, yet instead of assuring them that he would kill the vampire, it only served to frighten them even more. Such power could only be that of a monster. Yet no one wanted to risk sharing the thrall's fate. What else could they do but let this hunter do his job and pray that he left the area afterwards?

The tip of the gauntlet blade came up and pointed to Rodham. "If you ever even think of making a deal like this with the vampire again," D hissed angrily, eyes shining the color of blood, "I will personally hunt you down and rip your throat out, do you understand me, you son of a bitch!"

The mayor stumbled back, frightened to death of this young man. "Perfectly," he whispered before pushing his way through the crowd, wanting desperately to get away from the hunter. Seconds later, the townspeople themselves withdrew back to the city. This single hunter had frightened them almost as much as the vampire lord did.

With a sigh, D's eyes returned to normal. The blood staining Varda was quickly absorbed into the gauntlet, leaving not even a trac. With his eyes turning to Reidai's corpse, D considered allowing Varda to consume the body, then opted to decided later. Right now, he needed to restore the barrier and find out what shorted it out. He walked around to the generator after checking the barrier fencing for damage only to find none. As he's suspected, there was a small device lodged in the power generator that had caused the short. The thralls must have put it there last time just in case of such an event like this. D pried the device out and used Varda's lightning powers to once more jumpstart the generator, then walked around to the front yard. Daniel was still standing there, mouth agape in shock and horror at what he'd just seen happen, and no doubt what he'd heard.

There was no use in trying to make excuses. D walked over, picked up the thrall's corpse, then headed around to the stable where his motorcycle waited for him. He tied the body to the vehicle with some rope, then got into the driver seat and slipped his helmet on. Engine powered and ready, D pushed the right pedal to engage the drives and drove out of the stable to head off down the road toward the castle. Dawn was still hours away, so Tremere would still be awake to see the delivery of his deceased servant and of this damn sword.

An hour later, he finally arrived. D got out, eyes adjusted for the dark early morning sky, and untied Reidai's corpse from his motorcycle. He carried it over to the edge of the chasm and threw the body to the ground, now looking up at the towers of the castle. "Tremere!" No answer. Not unexpected. If he was right, the vampire didn't at all recognize who his enemy was, who he had been.

"_Arkhm!_" D screamed. The single word echoed over the valley, no one in the castle could have not heard it. For a minute, there was still no reply. But then D saw a light appear in the watch tower. His eyes shifted, vision increasing to see the face of the man who had destroyed his life. No doubt Tremere was doing the same to see him. There was surprise on that face, surprise to hear that name spoken, that someone knew him by that name. "I brought back your trash, Arkhm!" D threw the sword to the ground. Indignation was now appearing on the vampire's face, he could see it. Good, all the better to really get his attention. "I've had enough of your games, you son of a bitch! You destroyed my life four hundred years ago, and now it's time for me to return the favor!"

His message now delivered, D returned to his motorcycle and departed. As soon as the hunter was gone, the bridge lowered and Grigori ran out to where Reidai's body lay. It only took a moment for the dhampir to see that his underling was indeed dead. He hadn't believed it possible, but even the aid of their master had not been enough to help Reidai defeat the half-breed hunter. Who was this dunpeal, how was he so skilled and powerful that a thrall with over a century of training and experience could be so brutally defeated?

As Grigori stood, he turned to see his father standing behind him. The dhampir was quiet, then bent down to pick up the iron sword from the ground. "I will kill him for this insult," he spat angrily. "No one mocks us like this, father."

The vampire only nodded. He glanced to his minions and gave them a glare which signaled for them to take Reidai's body into the castle. He was still silent when his attention turned to the road that the hunter had departed on. "He's no ordinary dunpeal," Tremere said at last, eyes narrowing. "He knows me somehow, knows me by a name I haven't gone by in centuries."

Those ice blue eyes turned to Grigori. "When the night returns," he hissed to his son, "go to the farm and kill him with my sword. Avenge Nore and Reidai, make this half-breed scum pay for defying our authority, and bring me my bride. Once you have done this, you shall become a full vampire, and the human blood within your veins shall be purged from you."

The dhampir nodded and turned to look out into the forest. Soon enough he would challenge the dunpeal, prove himself better, and kill the half-breed who defied the vampire lords of the world. Once that was done, he'd take the girl and her sister, bring them back to the castle, and once he had been granted immortality, he would in turn claim the older sister as his own. Perhaps as a victory prize, he would take that gauntlet the hunter wore, or better yet, his head.

Tomorrow night would indeed be a night to forever remember.


	10. Chapter 9: Dance of Blades

The sky was beginning to brighten when D returned to the farm. The barrier was back up, much to his satisfaction. Yet, when he pulled up to the fence, the barrier was not lowered to let him in. D could clearly see Daniel and Iria standing at the window, watching him, so why were they not...

Oh, that was right. Daniel had found out what he was, not to mention what he was capable of. Iria no doubt knew as well by now. Dear god, did he hate problems like this. D sighed and dismounted, slipping off his helmet. "Daniel!" he called. "Open the barrier and let me in!"

No movement. Where was Catherine, wouldn't she be trying to convince them on his behalf? Hell, he'd already saved them from that mob, didn't Daniel and Iria realize that he was the only thing keeping those people from storming their home and turning them over to Tremere? For that matter, he was their only hope of being rid of Tremere's terror. "Daniel, lower the barrier!"

The young man walked away from the window and opened the front door. His rifle was in hand, now aimed toward the hunter. "Just go away!" he screamed. There was fear in his eyes, fear of the things he'd seen D do and fear of what he was. More precise, what he _thought_ D was. "If I had know that you were a dhampir freak, I never would have hired you in the first place!"

Daniel had no idea just how close he was to wishing he had never heard the word 'dhampir'. "I'm not a dhampir, Daniel. If you'll just open the barrier and-"

A shot fired. The energy burst slammed into the barrier and was harmlessly dispersed, but it was enough to say that Daniel was not going to listen to any explanations. "Don't fucking lie to me, you son of a bitch!" He turned toward his older sister. "Iria, I don't want you to shut off the barrier for any reason, understand?"

"Daniel, this is stupid!" D exclaimed. With the young man's attention back on him, the hunter sighed, trying to figure out how to end this little crisis. "I'm not a dhampir! Are you willing to take that maniac thrall's word over mine, when I saved you and your sisters from both Tremere and that mob who wanted to hand you all over to the vampire!"

The young man shook his head. He was clearly afraid for himself and his sisters. Yes, D had saved them repeatedly, but he was a half-breed, and as far as Daniel was concerned, dhampirs were no better than the vampires who spawned them. Being that D was not a dhampir, he'd normally agree, with a few exceptions due to personal experience. However, Daniel and Iria were choosing to believe Reidai's words rather than let D explain himself, all because he hadn't outright told them in the first place. It wasn't like they ever asked or had a concern about it before. "Just...just go!"

D shook his head. "I can't do that," he said, voice ice cold now. "I have a reason for going after Tremere, Daniel, and you hired me to protect your family. That's exactly what I intend to do." He raised a brow now. "Besides, you still have some of my weapons."

The rifle was held tighter now. Daniel was about ready to have Iria shut down the barrier just so he could shoot D, but he knew that the hunter would move too fast for that to work. He wanted to believe D, give him a chance to explain, but he'd already seen what this half-breed could do. "You're not coming in here. Just forget about your weapons and-"

The dunpeal shook his head. This wasn't going at all how it should have. "You brought this on yourself," D muttered just before he raised Varda and unleashed a lightning barrage that caused a hole to form in the barrier field. Using the split second he had, D ran through the gap and jumped up just as Daniel fired. He came down, landing right in front of Daniel and pulling the rifle from his hands. "Listen up, and listen good!" the hunter spat while pushing Daniel back into the house. He felt Iria's reaction before he saw it, drawing his force gun and aiming it before she could do the same. "I'm asking you now to stop acting like frightened animals and start thinking like human beings. If I was some monster, why would I be working so hard to save you from the monsters?" D's eyes shifted about. "Why the hell haven't you let Catherine explain it all to you?"

"What the hell does Catherine have to do with you being a dham-"

Those crimson eyes quickly returned to glaring at Daniel. "Call me a dhampir again," D hissed venomously, "and I'll be very hard pressed to keep from tearing your throat out. Now sit down."

Daniel gulped before complying. D turned back to Iria, the look in his eyes more than enough to tell her that he wanted Catherine out there now. When she left to get the girl, D returned his attention to Daniel. He sighed, then tossed the young man his rifle and holstered his own weapon. "Catherine has to do with this because she already knows what I am," he began. D wasn't in an aggressive posture anymore, but he also hadn't relaxed. "Did you even think to ask her if she knew?" Daniel shook his head. That had been rather expected, sadly. "Then let me clue you in, Daniel. I'm not a dhampir, I'm a dunpeal."

"A...what?"

Again, that was the expected reaction. Get too far out from the planetary capitol of Enoch and people had never even heard of vanpyr, let alone dunpeals. "I told you about different vampire races," D explained. When Daniel nodded, he sighed in relief. It was then that Iria returned with Catherine. "Just because I am half-vampire doesn't mean I'm a dhampir, because my father isn't a Kinthea, he's a vanpyr, and his kind have been fighting to protect you humans from the Kinthea."

Daniel looked to Catherine, eyes asking for confirmation. She nodded slowly. "D told me about the dunpeals and vanpyr," she stated. "How the vanpyr are different from the Kinthea, that they only need blood for their strength and powers..."

"And how I have one hell of a personal beef with Tremere," D finished. Now leaning against the wall, he nodded to Catherine, thanking her for helping him. "I know I didn't tell you before, but it's not exactly something I advertise because of this very reason. Dunpeals are similar enough to dhampirs that most people just assume we're the same thing and that our parents are the vampires we know as Kinthea. Plus, you never asked."

"Don't ask, don't tell," Daniel muttered. Yes, he and Iria had kind of brought that on themselves. He'd never questioned D's human heritage or his abilities. Still, it was just too frightening to let him stay here any longer. He'd already killed one of the mayor's men, even if it was in self-defense of himself and his clients.

The dunpeal narrowed his eyes. They still weren't ready to trust him again. Catherine believed in him, and for him, that was enough. It was Daniel and Iria he was concerned about. In order to do his job, he needed their trust again. Right now, it didn't seem like that trust was going to be restored.

"Just go," Daniel finally said to the hunter. "I don't want any more trouble from you or the town, and so long as you're here, trouble is all we'll have." He shook his head in dismay, then pointed toward the spare room. "Just take your things and go."

D didn't say anything as he walked down the hall and into the room. Slipping his coat on, the hunter went about packing up his equipment back into the hard cases. The particle rifle was swiftly disassembled and stored in its case. He paused for a moment. D didn't like this at all, just leaving the Rans to the mercy of Tremere and his kind. He was abandoning his mission if he obeyed the young man now.

The face shifted to the back of his hand again. Varda wasn't looking all too thrilled at this rather unpleasant turn of events. "I keep telling you," the demon remarked while D finished locking shut the cases. "You can't have too much faith in humans, kid." A grunt of disappointment. "Four hundred years of doing this, and you're still just now getting your feet wet."

Cases in hand and duffel bag slung over his shoulder, D made his way out of the room and down the hall. Daniel and Iria were watching him closely. They were frightened, yes, and the fact he was just so utterly calm about all this made it even more disturbing. He paused for a moment, turned toward the Ran siblings, then continued on out the front door and to his motorcycle. The hard cases were locked into place on the metal body of the machine while the duffel bag was stored away in one of the compartments. D didn't even look back when he slipped on his helmet and started the engine. However, just before he engaged the drives, he looked to see Catherine standing in the doorway. It was almost as if she was begging him not to go.

But right now, he needed to find a way to make them trust him. Ignoring Daniel's plea was not the way to go about it, no matter how well intended he was. As so, pressing the gearshift petal, D engaged the engine drives and drove off.

* * *

He was gone. Their only hope of salvation from the vampire, now gone, all because her brother and sister had decided to listen to that stupid mob and the thrall when they claimed D was a dhampir. He was nothing like the vampires or their half-cursed spawn! How could her family so ignorantly refuse to let him prove himself, explain things like he had for her? If only they had been there when D had rescued her from Tremere's castle, risked his life to save her, they would not have been so quick to pass judgement on him.

"I can't believe you just did that!" she screamed. Both Daniel and Iria looked at Catherine in shock. "He was our only chance of being free of all this, and you chased him off!"

The young man blinked. He couldn't understand why his sister was angry with him. She had seen what the hunter could do, what he was capable of, and what he was. How could she defend him after seeing all that? "Catherine..." Daniel shook his head. "He's a monster."

"He's not a monster!" the girl snapped in reply. "He's the only person who actually gives a crap about what happens to us, Daniel, and you just treated him like he's lower than dirt!" Tears were welling up in Catherine's eyes as she turned and stormed into her room, slamming the door shut behind her.

With his attention now on his older sister, Daniel Ran found that he couldn't say anything. What was there to really say after the things said by Catherine, after she had defended the hunter? Was it possible that they were wrong to drive him away? But D was a half-breed, just as dangerous as his vampire parents, if not more so owing to the fact that he could walk about in daylight. He was deadly, already proven many times over, and he'd tonight revealed a furious rage that he'd kept hidden before. Then one factored in the peculiar aura that he had, making it most uncomfortable to be around him, and it all made sense after knowing what he was.

But then why was Catherine able to be around him, able to believe in him so much? She'd been there when he'd unleashed his rage, she'd known what he was and still had the faith to trust him. What did she see in the hunter that her older brother and sister couldn't? She wasn't...in love with him...was she?

"I knew it was a bad idea to have him in this house," Iria remarked softly while sitting down. She brushed back her hair, moving the bangs from over her eyes. "The moment I saw him, there was something about him that bothered me, and now I know what it was."

After a moment, Daniel found himself nodding. He'd had that doubt about D before, but considering the lack of options, he'd ignored the worries in his mind. Yet, now, after giving into those fears, Daniel wondered if his original decision was not what he should be second-guessing, but instead the decision made now to get rid of the hunter. If D was right, then once the town realized he was gone, they would come to the farm and tear it down in order to get at Daniel and his sisters.

The young man sighed and looked out the window. Had chasing the hunter away been such a good idea now, he wasn't sure. All they could do was wait and see. Hopefully, it was over. Yet there was a worry in the back of Daniel's mind still. Would it be over?

* * *

"You know, that's something I ain't never seen you do before, kid."

Ignoring the gauntlet's voice, D continued to tear through the plains, running the engine at full throttle. He didn't feel right about leaving the Rans, but he didn't exactly have much option at the moment. Daniel and Iria were scared to death of him, they wouldn't listen to Catherine, and now the whole town knew what he was, or thought they did. Insulting or not, dhampir was close enough to what he was for people to get the idea.

The face shifted so that it got a better view of the dunpeal. "You don't run away from your problems, I know you too well." Varda narrowed his eyes at the boy. Something was up. "What are you planning?"

Silence still. D tapped on the control board and brought up data from the orbiting satellite network, which relayed into his helmet visor. Even then, he gave no answer. It almost was as if he had no answer as yet.

The demon face grunted. Truly this job had been making D act very oddly. The boy normally wasn't one to brood, nor did he ever simply abandon a job. Then again, he normally didn't let his clients gets so close to him, nor did he ever open up like this to the person he was hired to protect.

"You know, while we're out here," Varda stated as she shifted about, "you mind stopping so I can eat? I haven't had much of the big five since we left the Balkans, and I-"

The bike pulled to a halt. D stepped out and placed his left palm against the ground. In mere moments, earth began to vanish under the gauntlet. The strange thing was, the earth would have normally stood up to even a hard shovel. Then again, Varda was hardly a natural being. With a belch, the demon chuckled and shifted to the top face of the gauntlet again. "Any chance for some water or fire?"

"You'll have to wait," D replied, once more mounting the motorcycle. He keyed the engine back on and took off, continuing on his way. "You already had wind when you chugged down those corpses, and wood isn't much of a worry." The boy sighed, then tilted his head back.

The sun well over the horizon, shining brightly on its westward path in the sky. It was around mid-day, just before noon; a Kinthea's time of bane, so he needn't worry about vampire attacks. D had already been driving for hours now since sunrise. It would probably be a good idea to stop at some small village and get something normal to eat.

"Give me a map of local villages and supply points," he stated to the computer. In seconds, it had calculated his distance from the nearest stop. Sixty kilos out, wouldn't take long to get there now. By nightfall, he'd well be out of the region and on his way back to Enoch, which as about the only place he could go to get his motorcycle serviced. The weapons storage was running low, since he hadn't been able to get a reload after his last job, and he needed to get the transmission retuned. It was running a bit heavy, would do some good to get work done.

An hour later, he pulled into the small rest stop village. It didn't even have a name, just a designation because of how small it was. But it was enough to get fuel for his tank and some food. A few hours of sleep wouldn't hurt either, because even if he was more enduring than a human or even a dhampir, he still had limits.

The fuel was pricey, expectedly so since engined vehicles were such a rarity out here on the frontier. But, in his line of work, one wasn't often short on money. Three full auxilery tanks of gas, the two main tanks in the vehicle itself, and the motorcycle was ready to make the long trip to Enoch. D, however, still need, to get food and some sleep.

* * *

Night was approaching. Daniel gripped his rifle tightly while looking out through the hole in the living room wall. So far there had been no sign of anyone coming up to the farm from the village or the castle. Maybe they'd actually been given the chance to live in peace now.

"Catherine's still going on about that dhampir hunter," Iria said as she walked into the room, blaster in hand and rifle slung around her shoulder. "I knew hiring him was a bad idea."

Daniel only nodded. It looked like there was something moving out in the distance. Most likely just the trees blowing in the wind. "I should have seen it when I met him, that he wasn't human." A pause as the young man glanced to his sister. "I guess I was just so desperate to get help that I didn't listen to my instincts."

The sun had set. Daniel turned back to keep his eyes out for trouble when something appeared from the trees. His rifle came up, ready for use, but nothing could have prepared him for the crushing force that slammed into his chest and sent him flying back into the furniture. An instant later, the barriers flickered out. Iria's weapons came to the ready, but they were swiftly flung away as an unseen force caught her by the throat and lifted her into the air.

There was a cruel high-pitched laugh. Stepping into the room, Grigori looked at the oldest of the Ran siblings lustfully. "You're even more lovely when you struggle," he remarked in a hissed tone. Turning to Daniel, he walked over and picked the young man up by the collar. "Where's the hunter, boy!"

The human didn't reply, he could only stare in horror at the dhampir who held him by the neck. Grigori snarled, then looked around. If the hunter were still present, he would have already intervened. "You released his services," the dhampir concluded, gaze now returning to Daniel while two burly mutant golems entered the house. "A wise choice on your part, it means that I'll actually spare your life for realizing your error of opposing your rightful lords."

With a grin, Grigori dropped Daniel to the ground and gestured for one of the golems to take Iria. "Your invitation to the wedding between my father and your sister still stands, human," he stated while walking back toward Catherine's room. With a quick motion of his hand, the door flew off the hinges to reveal the girl now backed against the wall. A hand reached out to her while Grigori smiled. "Duke Tremere awaits you, my dear." The dhampir flashed his fangs. "We mustn't keep him waiting any longer."

A flash of his eyes caused Catherine to faint. The dhampir picked the girl up and carried her out, nodding to his golems to follow him in departure. A moment as he stopped and looked back at Daniel. The human knew where the castle was, and the servants had been ordered to grant him entry should he decided to come for the wedding as invited. They had what they came for, but Grigori still wanted to face the hunter. Such would have to wait.

* * *

Snapping awake, the blonde young man looked about before getting out of bed and quickly grabbing his belongings. Armor and coat donned, golden gauntlet locked to his left arm, and D was out the door, leaving his payment for the room on the front desk as he ran out of the inn. He turn his gaze back in the direction of the Ran farm as he reached his motorcycle, slipping on his helmet and keying the engine to life.

Gripping on the brake control before gunning the engine and performing a turn-around, D narrowed his eyes and released the brake to go tearing out of the village. He quickly tapped the control board to engage the overdrives, now roaring away at speeds only imagined possible by the simple people of the frontier. At full speed, main engine and overdrives, he would be back to the farm within less than an hour, but it was going to burn into his main tank of fuel like a roaring fire.

"What the hell is going on!" came the irate voice. Varda hadn't taken kindly to his rude awakening, nor to the fact he didn't know where they were going. "I was having a rather nice dream right there, so what's the big idea of-"

"Shut up!" came the harsh words from the hunter. Already he could see the dim lights of Runsalva in the distance, and they were rapidly growing brighter as he continued to draw near to the village. "It's Arkhm. He's made his move, and I am not going to let him do to those kids what he did to me!"

The gauntlet was silent. It was not wise to try and smartmouth at D when he was in this kind of mode. While Varda wasn't completely privy to the details of D's past before they'd met, he knew that there were somethings that really set the dunpeal off, and this Tremere vampire was one of them.

The village was in sight now, but Runsalva wasn't D's objective. He tore right past the village, only shutting down the overdrives when he was in sight of the farm. At last, he came to a screeching halt and leapt out of the motorcycle, but he found that he was already too late. The farm was in shambles, the barrier posts torn down and the stables little more than debris while the bodies of the livestock littered the grounds.

"Good god," Varda whispered as he looked at the scene from the top of the gauntlet. Even to the demon, the sight of the farm in such ruin was surprising. "Tremere wouldn't kill them all, would he?"

The hunter was silent. Something else was still here."Daniel!" he cried out, now racing toward the rubble which had been the farm house. There was no sign of the young man, however, as D reached the debris. He sniffed the air again, unsure as to what that smell was, to whom that presence belonged to.

"D, watch out!"

The hunter spun, blade erupting from Varda as it came up and blocked the attack from a long rusted blade. The dunpeal's eyes went wide at seeing that sword again, but quickly went cold as they traced down to meet the eyesof the weilder of that weapon. Now D realized what he had been smelling. "You're no thrall," he hissed while Grigori grinned and leapt back, sword brandishing mockingly at the hunter. "I can smell the taint o a thrall, abut you're is too strong for that. You're a dhampir!"

"And soon enough I shall be rid of my human blood!" Grigori replied angrily. "Even now, the girl is being readied for her marriage into our family, and her sister will join her as my bride once I am Embraced by my father!"

The blood red of D's eyes shifted violently. Recognition now as to why Grigori had looked so familiar. "You're Arkhm's son," he whispered. Indeed, irony was amusing at times. "So, did you come back and kill the boy before taking his sisters?"

A smirk formed on Grigori's mouth. "No," the dhampir replied. "Father wishes the human to be witness to his sisters' union into the house of Tremere. It's the least we can grant the boy."

Anger was burning in the hunter's eyes now. So many insults had this half-breed fool and his father thrown at the one who hunted them, not realizing yet who it was that they faced. And now the knowledge of who this dhampir was had at last presented itself to D, as did his way of having revenge. "You do know that both you and your father have to die," the hunter stated as he took stance for battle. "A vampire and his loyal dhampir are something that the world cannot have existing."

"And a vanpyr's spawn seeking to destroy our kind is something we cannot suffer to continue existing," Grigori retorted. His sword came about to thrust out at the dunpeal, only to be deflected by the blade of Varda while D spun about and moved back from where Grigori now stood. There was a smile on the dhampir's face still, one that was grow more arrogent by the moment; the dunpeal was afraid of his sword. "What's the matter, dunpeal?" he stated in a taintly tone of voice while taking a step toward D. "Scared of a little iron?"

The youth of a hunter growled. Tremere knew his weakness, as did the vampire's dhampir son now. It was no surprise, considering what had happened before, four hundred years ago, back before the world had ended. Those memories still burned in D's mind, eternally reminding him of the horrors he'd lived through, the terrible things he had witnessed. "I fear nothing," the dunpeal replied. "Especially not a coward's son who hides behind his father's power and a piece of shit sword that your father still doesn't have the decency to clean the blood off of!"

A thrust and Varda's blade was racing for Grigori's throat. The iron broadsword came about to parry, sending the two half-breeds into combat once more. With a twist, D deflected a return strike before leaping up into the air and whipping out his force gun. With only a moment of hesitation while the gun reached full charge, he pulled the trigger and fired, causing the ground to explode out as the burst slammed down. Grigori, however, wasn't harmed one bit, having avoided the burst, and was now standing ten feet from where he had been.

The dunpeal landed, firearm held at the ready while he bore his gaze down on the dhampir. It had been a long while since he'd faced an opponent with this kind of skill. Reidai had been skilled, true, but he was in the end just a thrall with more ego than true ability. Grigori, however, was a different issue all together. Not only was he imbued by Tremere's blood through the way of thralling, but he also had his own cursed dhampir blood which added to the abilities given to him by his master. No doubt, Tremere had been training Grigori well, which added up to an opponent that most human hunters would quickly fall to.

But D was hardly human himself.

Blades clashed once more, the dhampir grinning like a mad man as he swung again and again. Sparks flew with each crash of metal, proving that both hybrids were more than a match for each other. Another burst fired from the force gun, once again missing its target as Grigori leapt up into the air. He seemed to float there for a moment, his eyes shining before he slowly came back down to the ground. This was more than enough proof of the dhampir's mastery of his powers.

"Just a simple half-breed is all you are!" he stated to D, lifting the broadsword to point at his foe. "I'm more than you could ever be, freak! Faster, stronger, greater in every possible way!"

The dunpeal took a breath. Grigori's boast was not empty ego, since he'd already lasted longer than Reidai had. However, he still seemed to be far too confident in himself and was placing too much faith in the iron of his blade. "That sword isn't going to do you much good if you can't stick it in me," D stated calmly while repositioning his feet. "Even then, do you really think you can kill me?"

A flash of his fangs revealed Grigori's opinion on that matter. "Watch me, dunpeal!" With a cry, the dhampir rushed forward, blade scrapping against Varda before pulling back and swinging about again to crash into the main portion of the gauntlet. He quickly spun around, bringing his left leg about to slam into D's chest. There was a dull _thud_, but with that was also a _crack_.

D stumbled back, cursing himself for being caught like that. Another blow was narrowly deflect away from his face, sparks flashing from the blade of his gauntlet as the iron sword scrapped along at the edge. Pushing to the side, he brought his right hand up with force gun charged to fire, but something flashed out and knocked the weapon from his hand. Sparks spurted from the firearm where five metal claws had been drive through the side.

Once more flashing his fangs, Grigori revealed a wooden stake in his left hand. "It's time for you to die, lowbown freak," he hissed. With a flick of his wrist, the dhampir brought his sword up to strike at D's chest. To his surprise, the blade was blocked by the solid plates of armor in the hunter's vest. "What!" The dhampir growled before defending the attack from D that followed. With a grunt, Grigori flashed out his right hand to produce his metal claws, then swung to cut open the zipper of D's vest. "This has gone on long enough!"

The hunter leapt back in time to avoid another attack from the sword. His vest was wide open, leaving his torso vulnerable. "I really hate it when someone gets that kind of idea," he muttered just before stepping back and raising Varda to block a swing from Grigori just as the dhampir jumped at him. Another clash of blades caused sparks to fly out once more, but if either combatent was tiring, they dared not show it.

With a roar of anger, Grigori swung, slamming the iron sword against Varda and trying to swat the wide and very defensive blade away so that he had a clear strike. D was far too quick though to let such a blow slip through. One lucky attack managed to catch him across the cheek, just as Reidai had done. He quickly leapt away, smoke oozing from the wound even as he could feel the burn. Grigori only looked at the sight in amusement. Apparently, he hadn't imagined that iron had such a visable effect on dunpeals. It truly was their bane, burning them to even touch the metal.

"Now I know why you fear iron," he stated, closing in on D. "It burns you like it does the fair ones!" A sadistic grin made its way to his lips, flashing his fangs which hungered for blood and victory. "You're like the pixies, pookas, and knockers! Iron is your bane, because you're something that isn't supposed to exist!"

D took a breath. Just being near wrought iron for this long was starting to sap his strength. Actually having been touched by it was painful and sucking his ability to fight. "No," he retorted coldly. "We represent life from that which does not live. Iron is unchanging stagnation, a symbol of death, you idiot! Dhampirs are not supposed to be, dunpeals _are!_"

The hunter made his strike, but with his body tiring and drained from the effects of the iron, he wasn't able to mode fast enough to defend against the sword as it slammed into his back by the flat. Even with his armor and clothing, D could feel the burning touch of the iron, causing him to cry out in pain. Another swing swat him once more in the face, leaving a burn mark where the flat of the blade had hit him.

He tried to recover, but suddenly was gasping for breath when Grigori plunged the blade into his stomach. Smoke was billowing from the wound, almost as if he was on fire as, the blade withdrawn from his body, D fell over, trying to block out the pain. With his vest opened wide, the dhampir had taken the advantage and impaled him. Somehow, D knew that wasn't it.

A strong hand grabbed him by the neck, lifting him up as the iron sword was dropped to the ground. In Grigori's free hand was now a wooden stake. "Like our vampire sires," he stated, raising the sharpened piece of wood back, "the stake will kill us by the heart, as will it you!"

One powerful motion and blood was bursting from where the dhampir impaled D through the heart. The hunter was flung back to the ground, nearly motionless against the rubble of the farm house while Grigori only grinned in triumph. True, the youth was still gasping for breath, but in moments, he was still.

He waited. For five minutes, Grigori stood there, until at last satisfied that the hunter was dead, he picked up the sword and began his trek back to the castle. He paused, looking back for a moment to the hunter's corpse. "For what's it's worth,' the dhampir spat, "you were a worthy challenge...for a half-breed freak."

And the Kinthea hybrid leapt away into the night, leaving D where he lay to rot. With nothing around to attempt a rescue, a revival, it was surly over. Tremere had beaten his foe...


	11. Chapter 10: As Night Falls

The night moon was full, shining like a pearl in the sky as the vampire lord stood at the top of the ramparts of his castle. He waited there, looking down at the preparations for his wedding this night to a very troublesome girl who had for nights on end eluded him. Soon, though, it would be resolved, he would have his bride, and his dhampir son would be Embraced as a full vampire before taking his own bride.

Truly, this night was turning out to be one of the best he'd seen in a long time.

"I was beginning to wonder when you'd return," Tremere stated as he glanced back to the new arrival. Standing there, fresh blood on the blade of his broadsword, Grigori was grinning from ear to ear. "I take it that the hunter is dead."

A nod as Grigori stepped over to his father, knelt down, and held up the sword as a trophy. "A stake through the heart," the dhampir said with pride. He looked up at his father, noting the gleam of approval in the vampire's eyes. "He was quite a fight, but is seems that iron is the greatest weakness of a dunpeal."

With the sword in his hand, Tremere gestured for his son to rise and stand by him. "You have made me proud indeed, Grigori." The vampire flashed a smile to his son. "This night, after Catherine is made my bride, you too shall join the ranks of the eternal, as a prince."

Yes, to be a full blooded vampire, immortal and unaging for all eternity. That was the reward he had worked all these centuries to attain, and soon, it would be his. After that, his pleasures and indulgences would be unending. He would claim the older sister as his property, perhaps enthrall the brother as his slave, and then, someday, he would travel to take his own domain in the frontier.

Yes, indeed, this night had been a good one.

* * *

The brunette young man stumbled toward the castle. His head was hurting, not to mention the wound on his head was bleeding, but Daniel Ran ignored all that as he held his rifle tightly. His sisters needed him, this all had happened because he'd sent the hunter away. "We should have trusted him," the young man stated, setting the power charge in the rifle's chamber. "Should have given him the chance to prove himself again, but I was too damn scared to listen to reason, and this happened...it's all my fault."

Something moved in the trees. Turning, Daniel raised his rifle and fired just as a large rat-like creature leapt out at him. Dead shot right into the head, the komodo rat exploded like a ripe fruit. The young man looked around for any more of the creatures, then continued on his way toward the castle. He was tired, exhausted, but all that was pushed back by the burning anger, sheer will and determination.

There. The castle bridge was down, waiting for him just as Grigori had promised. They were waiting for him to join as witness to the wedding, to accept his sisters' fates as bride to the vampire and his half-breed son. No doubt he was expected to simply stand by and watch as his sisters were turned into the undead.

Well, the vampire and his minions were going to be in for one hell of a surprise.

* * *

Nothing stirred in the ruins of the Ran farm. No crickets chirped, no animals moved about, nothing was there that showed signs of life. It was a dead place, with the smell of death all around.

But then, something moved. Flashing about the surface of the golden gauntlet, the demon face of Varda appeared, looking around to find D laying against the rubble, a stake through his left breast and blood oozing out. "Oh hell," he muttered. "This isn't good at all." The face shifted about, found no way to enable himself movement, then sighed. "You know, sometimes I do wish I was in your hand and not this damn fancy glove, because then I could do something about all this!"

Something was now coming. Varda shifted to see some kind of gaseous creature floating toward them. A mist creeper, harmless to humans and large animals, being that it was primarily a scavenger and not a predator of large prey. However, in the case of large _dead_ animals, it was known for seeking out a feast of a meal. And considering the amount of blood that was pooling around D, that was going to attract one hungry mist creeper, not to mention anything else that happen to be in the area.

"This is definitely not good!" Varda cried out. Jolts of electricity shot through D's body, vainly attempting to revive the young hunter. Despite everything, Varda could not jumpstart the dunpeal back to life. "D, snap out of it!" he screamed. "I can't revive you like some super life generator, I'm not the parasite in that damn book!"

The mist creeper was getting closer. Wait, that wasn't any ordinary mist creeper. It was too big, and it looked off. It was one of those mutations that had been appearing, the ones that had no issue with attacking large and live prey. This was really not good. "D, I'm serious!" Varda's face was shifting about, trying to find some way to get him and D out of the situation they were in. "If you don't get your ass back up in the next ten minutes, you are mist fodder, and I'm out of a job, not to mention asleep for the next god knows how long until the old man comes to find us!"

* * *

Specters continued rushing about in the castle, making the final preparations for the ceremony. Tremere stood before several of his mutant servants, his attire being fitted and last minute changes made so that it fit perfectly. Meanwhile, Grigori was also being dressed for the events of the night, for both the wedding and his rise to full vampire existence. Clad now in royal blue, a cloak on his shoulders, the dhampir smiled as he looked himself over in the mirror. Contrary to popular beliefs, he had a solid reflection, as did his father. They weren't sure what had started the myth that vampires had no reflection in a mirror, but Grigori was starting to think that it perhaps stemmed from the vanpyrs and their dunpeal spawn.

Down in the other side of the castle, Catherine and Iria, both held in trances, were being dressed in shimmering white gowns. The younger of the two sisters looked blankly at the specter who was dressing her, unable to process any thought. It made her and her sister so much easier to control in these last moments before they were embraced.

"The master will be most happy with this one," one of the specters remarked. "So young and full of energy. You will make him pleased in your duties."

And at the bridge of the castle, Daniel finally made it, crossing the bridge and entering the main entry. He gripped his rifle more tightly now, eyes looking around for any sign of danger. So far, the komodo rats in the forest had been the only thing that attacked him, but he wasn't so sure how much he could trust the word of a vampire and his son.

So far, he'd made it to the foyer of the castle. The design most definitely wasn't what had so far seemed to be Tremere's style. A vampire wouldn't have built a castle with decorations depicting angels, nor would those symbols of the sun have been worked into the walls. Daniel could actually see where intentional damage had been done to the designs and statues, making it obvious that Tremere was not the original owner of this place. But then who had lived here before?

Something shifted from in the shadows. Daniel turned and raised his rifle, finger tightening around the trigger. Sweat dripped down his face as he nervously continued through the foyer. With no idea as to what was hiding in the shadows, possibly waiting for him to lower his guard, he could only keep walking toward the entrance to the castle proper. Now he was really wishing that he hadn't sent D away.

"I'm so sorry," the young man whispered. "I got scared, and now I've probably lost you both forever..."

* * *

Bolts of lighting surged from Varda still, his attempts to revive D still meeting with failure. "Would you wake the fuck up, you punk!" the demon screamed as the mist creeper continued to get closer. The monster was coming faster now that it smelled the pool of blood that was around the hunter. Within minutes, it would be on them. "God damnit, it figures that this kid goes through this the first time he gets staked!" The face growled at D. "Damnit, kid, you're no ordinary dunpeal! You can survive worse than this, your damn father is-"

The monster was upon them. It swooped down to envelope D, then suddenly wretched as a swarm of lighting slammed into it. Moments later, the creature exploded into bits of pulp, leaving D with his arm up as he breathed in heavily. It took him a few seconds more to reach to the stake with his right hand and pull it out of his chest. Moore blood poured from the wounded, but soon enough, it began to heal, though obviously slower than a lesser injury would have.

"Son of a bitch!" the hunter exclaimed. He tried to stand, but did not yet have the strength. he was weak, from the combination of iron burn, the stake to his heart, and the loss of blood. "God, I'm glad he only stabbed one of them." D felt the right side of his chest, breathing with relief to feel a heartbeat there. "Makes me really glad that dunpeals have two hearts."

With a sigh of relief, Varda then glared at the dunpeal. "It would have been nice if that extra ticker of yours had kicked in sooner!" the demon exclaimed in annoyance. "You had me damned worried there, what the hell took you so long!"

The boy breathed in for a minute, trying to recover from the injuries he'd taken. The wound over his left heart had healed, but he was still dealing with the massive blood loss. Even with a second heart, it was going to be awhile before he was at full strength again. Unless, of course, he found something to feed from, but that wasn't too likely considering that Grigori had killed all the livestock, and trying to lick up that pool of his own blood was not a good idea.

Taking the time to slowly get to his feet, D stumbled over to his motorcycle. He opened a side compartment, fumbling through the objects in there until he pulled out a case and unlocked the lid. Inside were bags of synthesized blood and plasma, developed over a century ago by Kinthea scientists so that the human population wouldn't be depleted. It had turned out to be rather useful for human medicine and for the vanpyrs, not to mention dunpeals. It was especially useful in this situation, being that it was an emergency supply that D had hoped he would rarely need to use. Using his fangs to rip open the seal on one of the bags, he quickly began to drink down the fluid through a canteen style opening. The emptied bag was quickly discarded, and D opened another bag of blood, drinking it as fast as he could.

After two more bags, the dunpeal check his supply and sighed. "Eight left," he muttered while locking the box shut after pulling out one more bag and sliding the case back into the cold storage unit in the compartment. "Damn, I was hoping I wouldn't have to drink those down this job! I still need a new load after the last three jobs used up the other case!"

The demon gauntlet only grunted. He couldn't find any reason to mock D on this one, being that the boy already had enough problems. He still wasn't fully recovered from what Grigori did to him, and the iron burns were only now just healing. It was going to be at least a day before the dunpeal was in perfect condition again. But they didn't have time to wait for that. "After this one, lets go back to Enoch and get new supplies already!" Varda sighed while D slid into the motorcycle and opened the seal of the bag in his hand to down one last drink of blood. "The bike has been running rough enough as it is after five months without a real re-alignment job, you need a new case of emergency food, and we're low on power cells for your guns."

"You forgot disc blades for the bike," D muttered before slipping his helmet on and slapping down the shield visor. With the empty bag thrown to the ground with rest in a pile, the hunter keyed on the engine, revved the 'cycle, then tore off with overdrives coming online. This was already one hell of a bad day for him, and it was only getting worse as it went on. If he was right, D didn't have much time to get to the castle and stop the wedding.

An instant later, the overdrive thrusters flared to life, sending the motorcycle roaring toward the castle. He'd arrive in a matter of minutes, and with the drawbridge down, it was going to be easy getting in. But why was it down? That could wait until later to discover, after he'd saved the Rans, if they could still be saved.

Most important though was the issue of Tremere and his son. D still had never forgotten what Tremere had done to him four centuries before. The images stilled haunted him even so many hundreds of years afterwards. He could still hear the screams as gunshots went off, the sound of people dying, being butchered like animals, all because of who they were.

His hands tightened around the control grip, foot slamming down the accelerator. D's eyes were now blazing with light, the shifting motion of his irises flowing madly. In seconds he hit the bridge, tearing down the foyer only to come to a halt as he saw the young human staring at his motorcycle in shock. "Daniel?" the hunter whispered as he lifted his shield visor and got out of the vehicle. "What the hell are you doing here?"

The young man caught his breath. "D? What...I would ask you the same thing! I'm here trying to save my sisters!"

A glance to Daniel's rifle told D that much, but only a fool walked right into a vampire's castle with only a blaster rifle and a prayer. Wait, where were the defenses that should have been going off right now to stop him? Why the hell had Tremere left his castle door wide open?

"I'm here for Tremere's head," the young hunter stated as he moved back into the motorcycle. "Your sisters are part of the job if they're still human, so you're welcome to come along." He paused for a minute. "That is, if you trust me."

As much as he wanted to answer, Daniel knew he didn't have much choice. D really was his only hope of saving Catherine and Iria. As it was, he didn't know how much time they had left. "Alright," he stated. "Just...tell me where to sit."

D reached to the control panel, then paused. Daniel wasn't very well off coming on to help him, he was better off waiting here. But, knowing the young man, D didn't expect him to do that. "I don't think you wann'a ride in shotgun's lap," he stated, his words almost a joke if not for the situation they were in. "I think Tremere's ordered that you're to be given safe passage through the castle, it's the only reason you've gotten even this far." Again, he paused as he thought the circumstances over. "You're best off going by yourself. I'll head on and crash the party."

"But Katie and Iria-"

"Will be fine so long as I get there in time," D stated in effort to stop Daniel before he started arguing. "Every minute you argue is another minute I don't get there. Now shut up and get walking!" Visor slapped down, and the hunter in his vehicle was off was more, roaring through the entrance and driving into the main hall. He had already lost the signal from the satellite network, but he was still able to use the trackers on his motorcycle. The trouble was that something was jamming the sensors, so he couldn't get a clear fix on the vampire.

Varda quickly manifested on the top of the gauntlet. "This Tremere guy really pissed you off in the past," the demon remarked. His usually tone of joking around was absent, revealing that for once, Varda was taking this quite seriously. "Is he the one that-"

"An Uzi firing sixty rounds into my chest," D hissed as he turned a tight corner. He checked the sensors quickly, the narrowed his eyes as he saw a cluster of werewolves standing in his way. "These guys just don't know when to quit, do they?" Fingers pulling the triggers, the motorcycle fired off a series of disc blades, slicing into the monsters, but hardly bringing them down. This was not going to end well at all.

Tapping at the keypad, D braced himself before activating a set of boosters that sent the motorcycle jumping into the air and over the werewolves. It landed again with a jolt, still heading down the hall while the werewolves gave chase. If Tremere had thought D was dead, he probably would know soon enough that he was wrong.

"First the asshole shoots me up and slaughters my family, now he can't leave my ass alone," the hunter muttered just before turning a corner. "What is his goddamn obsession with killing us off!"

The werewolves were catching up. D growled in response. He couldn't activate the overdrives, there wasn't enough room for that kind of speed, and the motorcycle's weapon systems were useless against the monsters. More off, his force gun had been destroyed by Grigori, which meant that, being he didn't have any silver weapons, D was out of things to throw at the werewolves.

This was going to get interesting.

* * *

Within the massive great hall of the castle, the majority of Tremere's servants had gathered to stand witness to their master's wedding. Grigori already stood by the alter with the ghostly phantom who served as minister. Now arriving, cloaking in black and red, was Tremere, the hypnosis induced Catherine holding his arm as they walked down the aisle together. A haunting rendition of the bridal march began to play as the pair stepped toward the alter.

A smile was on the dhampir's lips. Across from him, in the spot for a maid of honor, was Iria, in the same trance state as her sister. After the marriage of his father, Grigori would be granted immortality and the boon of taking his own bride.

The moon was shining down from the skylight, and as the couple neared the alter, a large cauldron flared to life with a blaze. The specters began to chant in praise of their master, wishing him and his new bride well as the came to the alter and bowed to the phantom minister.

"Those gathered here," the ghost began solemnly. "We are brought together to witness the union of Duke Jonathan Tremere and Catherine Ran in wedlock."

* * *

The werewolves were still gaining, and D knew he was running out of time. If he was right, the wedding was starting right now, though if he knew Tremere's kind well enough, it meant that the wedding was going to be a rather drawn out affair, especially since the vampire and his spawn thought that their hunter foe was dead. "How to crash the wedding and buy some time," he muttered. Then, it hit him. "Varda."

The gauntlet's faces shifted to look at the hunter. "What is it now?"

"Give the castle alerts a nice ring to let the home owner know he has a party crasher." D gave a grin as he formed his plan. "I wann'a hold up that wedding so we get a bit more time to get down there."

For a moment, the demon chewed on the plan. Then he flashed a grin while energy crackled over the fingers of the gauntlet. "Aim and fire, kid!"

D reached out with his left hand, allowing Varda to fire off an lighting assault that slammed into the walls and set off the castle sensors. Intruder alarms went off in the defense centers, and with any luck, Tremere's little wedding would be delay just long enough.

* * *

A dull drone went off, interrupting the phantom minister. Tremere looked around, then glared at Grigori to find out what was going on. The dhampir, in response, walked over to a wall mounted console and tapped on the keypad to bring up the image of D's motorcycle drive down the halls, chased by a pack of werewolves. "What!" the half-breed roared. "It can't be!"

"What the hell is it!" Tremere snapped angrily as he turned back toward his son. "I supposed that the brother is stirring up some trouble?"

Grigori went pale. What he was seeing wasn't possible. "It's that damned hunter!" he replied, looking to his father with horror on his face. "He's still alive, after I ran him through and staked him!"

For a moment, Tremere almost yelled out at the dhampir, but stopped before he started. There was no way Grigori had lied about what he had done to the hunter, but how could then their foe still live? No spawn of vampires could survive being staked through the heart, he knew that from experience in having killed both dhampirs and dunpeals. How then was the hunter still alive?

"Go and kill him again then!" the vampire ordered of his son. "Take my sword and cut his damned head off this time, just make sure he's dead!"

With a nod, Grigori ran from the chamber, racing to obtain the iron sword before going after the vampire hunter. None of this made any sense though. How could any being save a werewolf survive what he had done to the hunter? The dunpeal was a mere half-breed, meaning he was even less likely to survive death than a full vampire.

There. As he entered Tremere's chambers, Grigori found the iron blade and claimed it from its rest stand. Still on it was D's blood, now drying to join the ancient bloodstains which already marked the blade. With a grin, the dhampir headed back down the hall, his eyes shining as he thought of all the horrible ways he was going to kill the hunter.


	12. Chapter 11: Repaid in Blood

The werewolves were still gaining. With the restrictions of the castle halls preventing him from using the overdrives, D knew that he didn't have much time before those monsters were on him. "Autodrive," he stated, engaging the automatic computer pilot while he swung around onto the back of the motorcycle and opened a side compartment. One hand dipped in and pulled out the weapons case, then D slipped back into the driver section and shut the armor plates. He didn't have much time, so as quickly as possible, he opened the case and began assembling the pulse rifle. "I really, really hate _lupus_ dogs."

With the gun locked into form, D pulled a power cell from his belt, locked it into the chamber, and opened the plates to slide the case back into the compartment. The werewolves were getting closer, but that wouldn't matter soon enough. "Suck it down, furballs." Raising the rifle, D flashed a grin and fired, catching one of the beasts in the arm. The impacted limb was torn off, causing its former owner to howl in pain, but the beast was still going. Another shot blew its head off, which downed one werewolf but left about eight more to go.

Another burst fired. This shot slammed into its target's chest, blowing open a massive hole the size of a watermelon and sending internals onto the face of the werewolf behind the struck creature. Another of the monsters was down, but when the motorcycle made a sharp turn, D nearly fell from his perch. A shot fired at that moment, only catching one of the werewolves in the side of the leg. The hunter took aim again, fired, and smiled when the third of the werewolves was struck and lost its head. Too bad _lupus_ didn't have the awareness to recognize when they were being killed off.

"This is getting damn annoying," D muttered before slipping back into the seat and shutting the armor panels. "Manuel drive." Controls now responding, he made a turn, gunning the engine once he saw the very long hallway he had to go down. The six remaining werewolves were still chasing him, just as he expected. He didn't have time to get back out and start firing again, plus he still needed to give Tremere a real distraction from the wedding.

An eye went to the control board of the motorcycle. "I hate this part of the job."

"D, what are you planning?" Varda asked. When the boy made a sharp turn-around, the demon realized what was being planned in the hunter's head. "D, no! We need this machine to get back to Enoch!"

D's right hand tapped away on the control board. "We'll pick up a horse on our way out, but we've got half a dozen werewolves still on us, and not enough time to deal with them." He growled, opened the panels so that he could reach into the cold storage compartment and pulled out his blood case. "And I paid fifty thousand for this art piece too..."

Now pushing out of the vehicle, D hit the ground, rolled for a bit, then came up and aimed his rifle. The moment that the werewolves were in range of his 'cycle, the dunpeal fired, a bolt slamming into the exhaust of the machine and causing it to erupt. The six werewolves were consumed in an instant, leaving the remains of limbs and the stench of burnt fur.

He slowly rose to his feet. D sighed as he looked at the burning remains of his motorcycle, then turned to continue down the hallway, rifle in hand and ready. This was turning out to be one hell of an annoying mission. It had already cost him a good chunk of his blood supply, his prized motorcycle and almost all his weapons, and to top it off, he still hadn't been paid yet.

* * *

Even as D was continuing on his way through the castle, Daniel was trying to find his own way toward the great hall. Currently hiding in a small alcove so that he was found, the young man breathed in and checked his rifle's power charge. Still over half-full left in the cell, enough to do what he had to do.

Someone was coming. Daniel quickly moved to hide behind a pillar. A figure clad in dark blue and a cloak shot by as if seeking a rampage. Not the vampire, he wouldn't let his wedding be interrupted for anything. It must have been that servant of his. Well, the less in his way the better chance Daniel had.

Making sure that the dhampir was out of sight, Daniel continued down the corridor, now able to hear a voice speaking. It was the words of a wedding ceremony. Daniel had found his goal. Now, though, he didn't know what he was going to do. How did one kill a vampire with just a blast rifle?

But at this point, logic was hardly what was on Daniel's mind. He gripped his weapon and ran, ready to slam against the massive doors that suddenly weren't there. In the instant it took for him to realize that the doors had been flung open of their own accord, Daniel was hoisted into the air by an invisible force. His rifle dropped from his hands, the boy now hovering while Tremere smiled and gestured to the assembled ghouls and monsters.

"Welcome to this joyous gathering, my dear boy," the vampire stated while moving toward the human. "I'm so happy you could join us this night."

The boy struggled against the invisible force holding him up, then spit at Tremere. The wad of saliva fell short, but his hatred for the vampire was made very clear. "Burn in hell, monster!" he screamed. "All of you should burn in hell!"

Acting as if he was wounded by the words, Tremere feigned shock. "I'm hurt," the vampire intoned. He moved his hand once more toward the congregation, then toward Daniel's sisters. "I invited you into my home, bring you into my glorious family, even make your younger sister my bride, and this is the thanks I receive?" Once more, a smile. "Anger, hate...and let's not forget the hunter you hired to kill me. Such an insult, my boy, but one I will forgive of my soon-to-be brother and son-in-law."

A movement of his hand sent Daniel flying back into the group of creatures. Suspended in the air, he could do nothing as the ceremony resumed. All Daniel could do was pray that Tremere intended for a full ceremony before turning Catherine. It was the only thing that would buy D the time he needed to arrive.

* * *

Footsteps echoed through the halls as the young dunpeal hunter continued running. He had already discarded his pulse rifle, now holding his force gun at the ready should the need arise. D could feel that a fight, a terrible battle, was awaiting him just ahead. It was the resolution of four hundred years of searching, hope almost lost, but always holding to by even just a thread.

Memories, painful images, flashed through his mind. The memory of a blonde young woman, body laying across the room from her head, a boy who looked just like him pinned to a wall by the iron stakes in his chest and the sword through his throat. The brunette woman who lay on the ground, mauled by lacerations and bullet wounds. The people he loved, that he cared about more than anything in the world.

All taken away by the man now known as Jonathan Tremere.

This was not about revenge, not about getting even, or even about the fact he had been hired to do this. None of those things mattered in why he kept going. The money meant nothing to D now. It was beyond personal, it had gone beyond that after a century.

This was about pure justice. About a man who was a monster being made to pay for his horrible crimes. About a man who had escaped justice for so long that the only one who even remembered was a teenage boy who had lost everything to his greed and lust for power.

This was about a family who didn't deserve the horrible fate it had met.

"D," Varda spoke. He didn't need to see the look in the dunpeal's eyes to know what was there. "D, listen. I've been thinking about all this."

There was no answer. D didn't care to reply, because he felt there was no need to.

"What do you plan to do once Tremere is dead?" the gauntlet continued. "You've been hunting this guy for centuries, made him the entire reason you are still alive. What are you going to do when-"

"He's not the reason I chose to keep living," D hissed. He didn't even bother looking at Varda, but that gesture wasn't needed. "The reason I keep living is because that's what they would have wanted, why I survived."

Someone was coming toward him. D clenched his left hand and extended Varda's blade. His senses came alive while his eyes became slits, body ready for battle. Even now, he could smell the tainted blood of a dhampir; Grigori. The dhampir monster was coming to finish what he'd started back at the ranch, thinking he could kill D and be done with it.

A smile found its way onto D's lips. Justice was indeed his purpose here, but no one said having a touch of revenge was out of the question. It was only fair, since Tremere took everything precious away from D, that the dunpeal take something in return.

In an instant, he flew up into the air, firing down at the blue clad figure even as he was turning to face upside-down in mid-flip. The blast slammed into the ground while Grigori surged forward, sliding against the stone floor while dust and debris fell. As D landed, he turned, brandishing both firearm and blade while Grigori readied his own weapon. New blood stained the blade, D's own blood, and it disgusted the dunpeal to see that these vampires didn't have the decency to clean the sword.

"I hope you're ready to die, freak!" Grigori hissed, bringing the broadsword about to be held in both hands. There was a dangerous look in his eyes; he wasn't going to tolerate any more failures at the hands of this hunter that stood before him.

D's eyes narrowed. "Do you have any idea just who I am?" he asked. It's wasn't a trick question that he placed before Grigori. He honested wanted to know if the dhampir realized just who it was he faced. "Do you know who's blood is in my veins?"

A sneer as the dhampir stepped closer. "I could care less who your scum ancestors were. All that matters is that they were pathedic excuses for vampires, and that their legacy dies with you!"

His lips curled up and a growl emanated from deep in his chest. D fought to keep himself from leaping at Grigori and tearing the dhampir's throat out. "My father is not _scum,_" he hissed angrily. "He is a great man who fights to protect the humans from _your_ kind, Kinthea spawn!" The dunpeal flashed his fangs now as his body tensed. He was ready for this fight, been ready since he first encountered Grigori. "And you are not fit to dwell in a house that was made by one he sired, dhampir."

Nothing more was said as Gigori rushed forward. The iron sword clashed against the golden blade of Varda as D deflected a thrust. His right hand quickly swung about the moment he leapt back, a rippling blast firing out and narrowing missing Grigoiri. The dhampir hit the ground in a roll and rose to use his weapon in a swinging motion that smashed through the force gun, shearing the barrel from the rest of the firearm.

In disgust, D threw the remains of his weapon away, now depending solely on Varda. His expression was a tight growl as the dunpeal continued to weave about and deflect attacks. This was not the fight that Grigori had expected, he had sought to simply make a few strikes and be done with it, counting on D to be more aggressive and foolish in his motions. Instead, what he faced was a honed and seasoned soldier, someone who knew exactly what he was doing.

Someone who had learned from his mistakes.

Blow after blow, the iron blade was pushed away with little effort, revealing now the kind of skill and ability D was capable of. The fight at the farm had been one of D's lack of control, unable to focus his emotions and his power, but here, it was a different story. He was centered, focusing only on this fight with a foul being who regarded himself as better than the humans. In the back of his mind were the Rans, his mission and task that even now were dangerously close to failure, but in the forefront of his mind was this spoiled child who demanded everyone bow down to him and his father, merely because of the damned blood which ran in their veins.

It was easy to have such a view, to believe that all those around you should just bow and worship merely because of what you are, or claim to be. Most vampires followed this rule, that because of their ultimate sire, because they were the Kinthea, they owned the world, that they owned mankind. They demanded, by virtue of species alone, that they were to be respected, worshipped, and given power over everything. All this because they were the undead, because they could not die.

But in the end, what truly made one worthy of power and respect was not what they were, but what they made of themselves. And D was very much a person who made sure he _earned_ that power, that he _deserved_ that respect. Because he _was_ the best there was, and he had made himself that way.

And no one, not even this dhampir monster or his father, was going to take that away from him.

Not again.

The blades crashed against each other, sparks flying as the edge of the iron sword scrapped along the golden edge of Varda. D tightened his expression into a frown, now pushing back against Grigori and making his move. A series of rapid attacks caused the dhampir to suddenly realize something; he was outclassed. His victory at the farm was fluke, an event that occurred only because he had been lucky, because D had not been at all focused on the fight. Before, he had faced an uncontrolled young man, someone who hadn't been holding onto his emotions or brought his focus to bear.

But this time, he was facing something more channeled, more powerful than anything he had ever seen before. This was not rage, nor hate, nor brute power. This force he fought, the force that resonated in each strike made by the hunter was purpose, pure purpose and duty. He was facing a soldier who had been through more and seen more than Grigori could possibly imagine.

"Why do you hate my father so much!" the dhampir bellowed as he swung hard, shattering a pillar while D simply stepped away from the attack. "What reason do you have for continuing when you have been beaten, hunter!"

Their blades crossed, now locked against each other. D's eyes went narrow as he looked into Grigori's own, almost as if he was staring into the dhampir's soul. "He never told you?" the youth whispered. "Never told you what he did four hundred years ago, before the Great War?"

They pushed away from each other. Grigori took the chance to catch his breath. It seemed that the hunter was allowing him to recover, because from all appearances, D wasn't even breaking a sweat. That alone was enough to send a child down Grigori's spine. "You mean those killings back before all the fighting?" he replied in question. Such a foolish thing to ask, of course he knew about his father's exploits as a killer before the war. Feeding off of the humans, because it was his right to do so. "Merely sheep who's sole purpose was to be his prey."

The expression in D's eyes went cold. "Did he ever tell you about the family he slaughtered?" the hunter continued. There was something else in the dunpeal's eyes now; a thirst, almost as if for revenge, but it looked to be even stronger than that. "About the life he destroyed just because he felt it was his right?"

There was a laugh from the dhampir youth. "Because it is his right!" Grigoir returned, truly believing his own words. "Humans exist only to be our food, our playthings! If your idiotic vanpyr sires would realize that, you and I would be friends, not enemies!"

"Then you and your father are even bigger fools than I'd thought possible." D snarled and raced at the dhampir, Varda raised and ready to strike. In a flash, Grigori brought his own weapon about to defend, reacting just in time to block the attack. In an instant, the blade came about again, slamming against the iron sword while Grigori stared in horror at D.

How could this be happening? The dunpeal shouldn't even still be alive, but to be causing this kind of terror in the heart of a dhampir prince, who this very night, even right now, should be ascending to full vampiric power, it was unthinkable! Who was he!

There was that look again in D's eyes as he bore down on Grigori. His lips curled back to reveal his canines, revealing the barely controlled fury that was behind his blows. This was no ordinary hunter, Girgori realized, nor even any simple half-breed. This was a force of nature itself.

In an instant, with a great crack, the iron sword shattered upon impact with Varda. Gigori could only gasp in shock just before the golden blade plunged into his chest. He stared into D's eyes, seeing there something he had never seen before; righteous fury, the fire of justice itself.

"Your father took away everything I held dear," the dunpeal hissed angrily. He pushed with his left arm, causing Grigori to wince in pain. "He walked into my home, and killed my family, just because he had the ability to do it." The hunter paused, allowing his words to soak into Grigori's mind. This dhampir was going to die now, for his crimes and those of his father. It was only right that he know for what crimes his father was going to join him in death for. "He took away my mother, my sister, and my twin brother, all because he wanted to prove something. And now..."

D hesitated. There were tears in his eyes. He was reliving those painful memories all over again, but this time, it was strength he drew from them. This was what he had to do, because if he didn't do it, no one else could.

"Now, I return the favor."

Varda was withdrawn from Grigori's chest. The dhampir gasped for breath only moments before D swung about and cut open his throat. Blood now gushed out, the dhampir choking on his own fluids. He stumbles about, grasping at his throat before falling to his knees. He was gurgling, trying to breathe in a futile attempt. Grigori stared at the hunter, now at last realizing who this powerful being was. This was no mere half-breed, no simple vampire hunter. This was something far beyond that.

"You...your father..." The dhampir was barely able to get the words out before he slumped over and hit the ground face first, dead at last. His blood continued to pour from his throat, covering the floor with crimson. D breathed heavily, the stress from the fight now revealing itself, but he did not afford himself the time to recover. He wasn't finished here, not yet.

Now racing down the hall, the hunter's eyes will filled with such purpose and drive, unlike any he had felt before. He had his revenge, but revenge wasn't what mattered. It was justice that mattered. The delieverence of justice and the protection of the Rans. No longer did his personal vendetta with Tremere have sway over his mission. Now, D's purpose was that of protecting the humans from one who intended to take away what they held dear, to do to the Rans what he did to D.

Like hell D was going to let that happen again.

* * *

The ceremony was almost concluded. No vows truly need be taken, since this was hardly a marriage in accordence with the ways of humans. All that need be done after the last words were said was to claim Catherine's mortal life and make her immortal. Once Grigori returned, at least. The boy did deserve to witness that moment.

There was pain. Tremere paled as he felt a flash of rage, pain, and then nothing. He turned toward the main doors, unsure why he felt those sensations. Surely, Grigori had slain his enemy, this time for good. It was unthinkable that the boy had been struck down, not after everything that had been put into making him what he was. No, it was just the play of battle. Grigori had probably taken some wounds, but emerged victorious. They would be badges of honor once he returned to the wedding.

The vampire looked toward Daniel. The human was still hovering in place, struggling, but less defiant than when he had tried to burst in. Perhaps he'd finally accept that nothing could change his family's fate.

The ghost was finishing the speeches. Good. Soon, it would all be over. So sad that Grigori would probably be a bit late, but that would be punishment enough for delaying himself.

"I now pronounce you lord and wife."

A smile formed on Tremere's lips now. His fangs grew, his eyes lighting up as he turned Catherine's head and tilted so that her neck was fully exposed. "Never have I had such trouble for a woman," he whispered to the girl. "It makes you all the much more worth the effort I put into obtaining you."

As he moved toward her throat, Tremere suddenly halted. The doors had suddenly been blown open, crashing down to the ground with a great clatter. Grigori would not dare do such a thing merely to show off, who could possible have done this? Tremere snarled and stood upright, turning to face the fool who had the gall to interupt his wedding in such a fashion.

And then, his blood frozen.

"Hello, Arkhm," came the calm piercing words from the youthful figure standing in the doorway. Golden blade shining from its place on his left arm, black coat draping down to come around his legs, and that pale blonde hair which hung about over his crimson eyes. Those eyes, red like blood, shifting as if the irises themselves were indeed blood. There was only one person who had such eyes.

It was D.


	13. Chapter 12: The Dark Knight

It didn't require Tremere to look back in order to see that there was joy on Daniel's face. This turn of events was beyond anything he'd though possible. It was completely _im_possible, by all means. This dunpeal whelp had beaten Grigori, a three hundred year old dhampir with the power of his vampire sire in him! How was this possible! It wasn't, by all means! The hunter should be dead!

The dunpeal stepped into the great hall. Several mutants rushed forward to stop him, but in a flash, that golden blade moved with a speed and grace that Tremere had never before seen. In that single instant, those malformed creations of terrible science fell dead at the hunter's feet, corpses on the ground. A single motion had brought them down. Impossible.

That same blade came up to aim toward the vampire. "You and I have unfinished business, Arkhm," the dunpeal stated. His voice was deadly calm, yet at the same time expressing so much anger and fury. "Your son has been dealt with, and now it's your turn."

Grigori. His pride, his legacy. The boy was indeed dead, and Tremere found that he was actually saddened to know that his offspring had been killed. "How dare you strike down the son of a vampire lord!" he roared. Tremere pushed Catherine aside, now moving to face the hunter himself. "Who do you think you are, what right do you have to attack those who are your masters, dunpeal!"

The boy halted in his stride. His eyes had shifted their focus now, no longer gazing at Tremere, but at something _behind_ him. It took only a moment for the vampire to realize that he was looking at the massive portrait which hung upon the far wall. What was the boy doing, trying to take strength from that image? Tremere snorted as he turned to look at the painting, then suddenly, for the first time, truly looking upon that face. There was something about the face of the man labeled by the plate on the frame as _Vlad Crusadas_. He had seen it before, but he couldn't quick recall.

Now that he thought about it, Tremre realized that he had seen this hunter somewhere before. He claimed that there was unfinished business between then. But what could it be?

Wait, a memory, from a long time ago. It was centuries in the past, but he still remembered. A family he had attacked, not for need of food, but because he wanted to make a point. Yes, he remembered it. That was where his blade had obtained those ancient bloodstains, in the blood of that family. A woman and her children. A girl and two boys. He'd been warned to treat the children as half-breeds, to kill them in a way that insured death. Yes, he had done so with the girl and one of the boys, but the third child had managed to escape after being shot repeatedly.

Could it be? Could it be that this hunter was that same child who had escaped his lust for blood four centuries ago? Could it be that those children had all been dunpeals, the offspring of that woman with a vanpyr? It was the only explination. And yet, the boy drew on another string in his mind, somewhere else he had seen that face.

The portrait. Tremere looked back again, now realizing with horror what he hadn't seen before. _Vlad Crusadas_. "Vlad the Crusader". The vanpyr sire, the legendary father of all those who were of vanpyr blood. A handsome man, strong yet youthful features. That pale blonde hair...

And crimson eyes.

He turned once more, now staring at D. Everything now fit. This was the child that, four hundred years ago, had escaped from him, had cheated death, and had been seeking revenge for all those centuries. But more importantly, he had been on a mission far greater than being hired to hunter vampires and monsters. It was a mission passed down, if the legend was true, by the Divine itself to the first of the vanpyr.

To his father.

"You can't be," the vampire whispered, but he knew it was true. In those eyes was the same look of purpose as the eyes in the painting held. "Your father...is him! The sire of all vanpyr!"

The hunter said nothing. He only continued forward toward his enemy, ever filled with his purpose. Those mutants who started to block his path quickly thought better of it the instant they saw his eyes. They knew that they would die the moment they stood in his way, meaning nothing at all to the dunpeal hunter.

"I was charged with a mission," D began, his pace not wavering nor gaining. "These three hired me to protect them and to eliminate you." A pause in his words, but his movement toward the vampire continued. "I intend to carry out that task, Arkhm."

There was no more running, Tremere knew it. For centuries, he had heard about this boy. A powerful half-breed, surpassing even pure blood Kinthea, who was charged with the same mission as his cursed father. He had heard the original tale from his own sire, the legendary Dracula himself. A man who fought in the ancient crusades was so overcome by the guilt of all the bloodshed he had cause, that he offered his own life up to the Heavens as the price for his crimes.

But he had not been allowed to die. Instead, he was reborn as a vampire being, the vanpyr, made this way by the Divine itself as both punishment and as a test. His mission was to protect humanity from itself, to bring them on the road to redeeming their own sins, and to defend against the forces of darkness that belonged not on this world.

He was known as Vlad the Crusader.

That man was the figure in the portrait. Tremere now understood it all. This boy before him was the son of that ancient soldier, the survivor of his own crime against the family of the vanpyr sire. And now, his crimes had caught up with him. In return for what he had done, Tremere's own son had been killed. Now, as the hunter said, it was his turn to face justice.

Not without a fight, however.

The vampire gave a snarling roar. His hand flashed out, and in an instant, a large broadsword flew from its display stand into his palm. With a shout, he lunged at D, thrusting with the massive blade in attempt to impale the hunter, but D was far too quick. He deflected the strike, spinning while coming about to stop ten feet away from Tremere's reach. There was no emotion now in the dunpeal's eyes, only his mission. His only thought now was to see this task through to the end. The money meant nothing, his revenge meant nothing. This was all about the final deliverance of justice.

Tremere swung again. This time D brought Varda about, parrying the blow and coming around to bring his right leg slamming into the vampire's side. Another such movement brought his left foot against Tremere's head, bone crunching under the force of the strike. The vampire was down, but D still did not press his attack. He waited, allowed Tremere to rise up and push in with fury. Blow after blow, the blade of Tremere's sword was met by that of Varda, causing a cascade of light and sparks to fly out with each meeting of metal. Never before had the vampire felt such calm and control from an enemy. It was like facing not a person, but instead a force of nature.

The golden blade swung around, meet just in time by the great broadsword to avoid injury. There was no fear of this weapon in D's eyes. It was not iron, nor even if it was, would he fear it. He was beyond fear, beyond desire, beyond anything of human wants. He was now justice itself, bringing upon Tremere the judgement of the heavens.

"Your crimes," he stated, pushing the vampire back as he now stood with blade held down, "are the wanton killings of innocents, including Emily Beatrice Bradson, Mary Lucia Bradson, and Vergil Maro Bradson." D narrowed his eyes. "For these deaths, and others far too numerous to count, I have been sent to carry out judgement."

A clash of blades once more, sending Tremere stumbling back. How could this stripling of a half-breed be this powerful! He was overpowering a seven hundred year old Kinthea, a creature who was almost invincible! This was impossible!

"For the crime of rejecting your humanity," D continued, still moving forward toward the vampire. "For the crime of accepting existence as an unliving thing, the sentence is damnation." The golden blade rose, now shimmering with its own light. "It's time for you to burn in the fires of Hell, Arkhm."

The vampire snarled. He could not escape this foe, but he could still outdo him. With a roar, Tremere raced at the dunpeal, pushing away the gauntlet blade and pressing in his own attack. Now D was on the defensive, but he didn't seem to be one bit disturbed by this reversal. On the contrary, it was like he had expected this to happen. The way he smoothly changed his stance and movements was far too natural to have been made out of surprise.

It was as if he had planned this entire battle, move for move, right from the beginning.

Tremere drew in just before making his move. The large weapon he held was forced down by the blade mounted on D's arm. For a long moment, they stood there, pressing their strength against each other. Then, with a quick narrowing of his eyes, D shifted his own blade about to push the sword up into the air. In that instant, he slammed Varda down, the blade shimmering and flowing into the gauntlet even as it traveled down into the stone floor. A mighty crack could be heard, and seconds later, the stones collapsed under him and the vampire, sending them tumbling down into the depths of the castle.

* * *

They all stood there, looking at the gap fissure in shock. After realizing what had just happened, the mutant servants of the vampire began to flee, now realizing that they were nearing their end. It gave Daniel the chance to run to his sisters once he touched ground. Iria quickly snapped out of the trance, but Catherine was still under the effects of Tremere's domination. She did not respond to anything her older siblings could do.

"Daniel, we have to get out of here!" Iria stated. The fear in her voice was clear; she still was afraid of what Tremere could do.

The boy shook his head. To leave now would be abandoning D. After all the hunter had done for them, even after they had treated him like scum, he couldn't just leave D behind. "Not without D," he replied at last. He quickly swept Catherine up into his arms. It hurt trying to hold her weight, considering just how exhausted he was, but right now, that didn't matter. All that did matter was getting her to safety while they waited for D to return. "We don't leave him behind, not after what he's done for us."

Amazement was in Iria's eyes. She never would have expected her brother to show loyalty to the hunter, not after learning what he was. But then again, D had still come back to save them, despite their treatment of him. Perhaps it was time to listen to his words and afford him the respect he deserved.

"Alright," she said at last. "We wait for him." ooo

They continued to plummet down into the castle depths, darkness overcoming their senses. Tremere swung only to cut through thin air where he thought the hunter had been, his blade coming to clash against a piece of the falling debris. Again he swung the moment he caught a glimpse of D, but once more, nothing was there. The only thing that met his blade was more falling rubble.

Something flashed in the darkness. Tremere brought his sword to defend, but nothing struck. Still, he could feel the movements of air go by him, like something slim and sharp had narrowly missed striking his head. They were still falling, yet since they'd been engulfed by the pitch black of the underways, he could not see his foe.

There was light now. The artificial lighting of the catacombs was visible now, and Tremere saw that his enemy, the hunter dunpeal D, was above him. The vampire hit the ground first, rolling away to bleed away the impact. Quickly he came to his feet, readying the broadsword in his hands for battle.

However, the young hunter spun about before landing straight on, kneeling as he came to a stop. A powerful rumble could be felt from his impact, while the ground beneath him cracked and caved down about a foot from the sheer force of his landing. His left fist was grounded against the rock, right arm spread back while his coat billowed before falling down to drape about his form. Slowly, the hunter raised his head to look toward Tremere, now rising up. His dangerous landing had no effect whatsoever on him. Even a dhampir would have shattered most of the bones in their body from that kind of impact, but D rose to his feet, upright like it had only been a drop of a few feet.

The gauntlet glimmered before the golden blade erupted into form. D's eyes were narrowed, pupils slit while the red of his crimson irises glowed vibrantly. He took a step toward the vampire, noting the fear in Tremere's eyes. He knew how this battle would end. In fact, the battle was over the instant it had begun.

And as D charged his foe, Tremere raising his blade to defend himself and to attack, the final note of this conflict was sealed. The ending of this battle had already been written, the victor already won, and the loser already dead. As the blades struck each other, it was just playing out the finality of a chase that had begun four hundred years ago, a chase that only had one end.

The rest is just details.

Blades continued to strike each other, a collision between the extensions of two souls. Sparks and flashes danced about from each blow, an elaborate one-time only unequaled performance for an audience that would never see it, for there was no one to witness this epic clash of power. Hero and monster, monster and hero, spinning, twirling, clashing and crashing, slash and parry, whipping and ripping about the air around them with the raw power of their movements.

It was like a dance, one so masterful that it could never again be repeated. And it never would be. Perhaps one day it would be out done, its shine overcome by an event that even this could not equal, but for now, this final conflict between two bitter foes was perhaps the greatest display of skill and determination that had ever been.

Tremere has the power and skills of centuries at his command. He rules over the horrible creations of unholy science, he commands the night and the powers that lie beyond the land of the dead. His vast armies have served him four hundreds of years since the end of the old world, his ability and skill with the blade one rivaled by few who are or were mortal. His power is that which few among the Kinthea could even dream to compare.

And yet all this means nothing. His centuries of skill, his levels of power, mastery of the undead disciplines, all the wealth he holds, his unequaled breeding, exquisite tastes - all the pursuits and pride of centuries that he had attained and garnered - all of this means no more than chains about his neck as he bends down before the axe.

Even his knowledge of the lost world and all its powers and secrets has become a joke.

He sees it in D's eyes. He knows how this will end, the way that fate has ordained this battle to be resolved. He knows that everything he has done means nothing in the face of what is inevitable. And yet, Tremere refuses to accept this simple fact, he continues to fight, continues to deny that he could never win this, deny that at last he has challenged someone who he cannot beat.

And that is why he has already lost.

Because D is fighting for more than just vengeance. Revenge is not the only reason he fights. Revenge is hardly even part of the reason he continues to battle the vampire. His purpose is one of justice, to see that the terrible crimes of the past are at last brought to an end. He stands between three innocent humans and the damnation that this monster would bring upon them, between darkness and those how belong in the light. In his heart is a powerful dragon, raging against all the horrors of the world, fighting to protect those who suffer so that what he was forced to witness would never happen again.

And despite the horrible memories that tell him that he cannot win, screaming that he will in the end fail, D continues to fight. When Tremere flies at him, the hand of his lost brother rises with D's own to send the vampire tumbling back. When all the powers of darkness at Tremere's command send rubble and debris flying at him, the loving words of his sister smash them aside.

And when the vampire strikes with all his might, the embrace of his beloved mother envelopes D with such power that his enemy is flung back with a force that causes the entire underground chamber to shudder.

Before this moment, his anger, his rage, have always been held back. It has always been his creed never to unleash such a power, because when it occurs, nothing can survive. Four hundred years ago, he had unleashed the raw fury of his anger, and he swore to never let that force cloud his mind again. Yet here, all the containment was let go as the haze which would have clouded him was blown away. Here, D saw with perfect clarity, saw the road that lay before him.

All he had to do was one thing.

Decide.

And so he decides to _win._

The golden blade crashed against ancient steel, causing Tremere to stumble back. The vampire thrust forward, but his sword only met air as the hunter spun on the heel of his foot, coming about from a twirl to stand opposite of his foe. Coat furling about, D sprung into action once more, Varda clashing against the broadsword while making quick and precise strikes that sought to pierce Tremere's defense, to make contact with his flesh.

"Why do you continue on this foolish path!" the vampire roared. In the next instant he was leaping away to avoid being cut by the golden blade. Landing, Tremere looked long and hard at his enemy. "Such stupidity will only result in your death boy! No one can take on the Kinthea nation and live!"

The hunter silently stepped toward his foe. His fangs flashed as he let his mouth open just enough to reveal the vampiric canines. "I've been doing it for centuries," the young dunpeal replied firmly. There was no fear in his voice, no apprehension. D was now devoid of any doubts in this battle. He knew that he would see his purpose through, that justice would be delivered, and the terror that this vampire had reigned with over the course of centuries would end. "I promised my father that I would follow his mission to protect humanity from your kind, and I have no intention of breaking that promise, Arkhm."

It began once more just as suddenly as it had ended but briefly. A crack resounded from the impact of the two blade. A shockwave sent the water that lay about on the rock floor flying away from where vampire and dunpeal stood, testimony to the power behind that single clash. Even now, sparks flew while the ancient steel scrapped against the golden blade of the gauntlet which served as Varda's prison. They stood there, staring into each other's eyes. In Tremere's was terror and anger, seething hatred for this dunpeal who dared to defy him.

Yet in D's there was only calm. His eyes, while slit like those of a cat, did not hold rage or anger. They held only grim determination, something that frightened Tremere more than anything. The boy was determined to win, to bring justice upon the vampire monster who had slaughtered innocents over hundreds of years of time.

"I am the son of Vlad," the hunter stated, voice calm yet firm. "In me flows his cursed blood, the blood of the Crusader." Those crimson eyes narrowed once more, reflecting his drive and sheer will. "But more importantly, in me is the soul he once thought he'd lost."

Tremere snarled and pushed away, landing about twenty feet from his half-breed foe. "What do I care of whose blood you have, or the soul you possess!" he hissed angrily. "It won't mean a thing once you're _dead,_ boy!"

D brought his let arm back, Varda's blade gleaming even in the low light. Dust was still slowly drifting to the ground as result of his hard landing, but his body and posture were not affected. "Nothing you have been seeking to attain will mean a thing once you have been sent to the damnation you have earned," was the hunter's reply. He tensed, kneeling slightly, then began to run toward Tremere.

The vampire saw the move for what it was and responded in kind. He brought his sword about, right to strike as soon as he had the dunpeal in range. For him, time seemed to slow, his moments and the dunpeal's appearing as nothing moe than the wound-down play of an event which had already happened. As the hunter drew near, Tremere adjusted his grip on the hilt of his weapon, readied to swing. It would only take one strike to finish this. The forward motion began...

And there was a flash. A bursting pain as Tremere realized too late what had just happened. He stumbled for a moment, almost seeming as if he would recover. However, it was then that the ancient sword clattered to the ground, his hands unable to continue holding its handle.

The vampire took a step forward while a splatter of blood hit the stone. "How," he gasped while blood began to drip to the ground. He could not understand it at all, how it was he'd lost. Across his neck, a thin line of red began to dribble down. "Who...what...are...you?"

The hunter said nothing as the vampire fell to the ground, his head rolling away from his body. Blood continued to seep from the gapping wound that had been were his head once connected to his body. The vampire's skin went blue for a moment, then cracked. A small puff of smoke came from the cracks along the corpse, and then there was nothing. Tremere was dead.

D silently took a breath, then looked out into the darkness of the catacombs. He saw her shining eyes, shimmers of that red hair. He didn't need to see her in order to know that there was a smile toward him. "You are now free," the hunter stated into the shadows. He turned away, began to walk, then stopped and turned his head back toward the blackness. "But if you should follow the path of a monster..."

"We shall not meet again under those circumstances," came the sultry voice. "I need only a bit at a time to survive, I give my word I will not drain any human dry in order to feed."

He nodded, allowed Varda's blade to recede into the gauntlet, then continued into the darkness. The body of Tremere lay there for a few minutes before the deterioration continued to the level where the vampire corpse fell apart, nothing more in the end but dust.


	14. Epilogue: A New Dawn Rises

They stood there, waiting for how long, they didn't know, but nor did they care. The monstrous servants of Tremere had fled, leaving them alone in the ancient castle. The three of them now waited at the entrance of the castle, waiting for their hero to appear from the depths of the darkness.

It had been hours since then. Catherine had broken out of the trance that Tremere had put her under, a sign that it was over. The vampire was no more, D had been victorious. They were at last safe, and yet, things could not be as they were before.

Their home was gone, their farm destroyed, their crops ruined beyond all repair and their livestock slaughtered. There was no way they could ever recover from the devistation that had been brought upon them.

Yet, there was always hope. As the first rays of the rising sun began to peak over the mountain tops, the trio of Daniel, Catherine, and Iria ran realized that this is what D had been trying to tell them all along. So long as they had each other, so long as they always had faith in one another, there would always be hope and the chance for their dreams to continue.

"Never fails to bring something warm to my hearts."

They turned suddenly at the voice. Walking toward them from the entryway of the castle was D. In his eyes, they saw that he need not tell them what had been done, because they already knew. As the hunter walked up to stand beside the three humans, he closed his eyes. Taking in a deep breath, the dunpeal at last smiled. It felt to him like a heavy weight had finally been lifted from his soul, and he knew that at long last, his family could rest in peace, justice at last fulfilled after four hundred years.

His eyes opened. D sighed and turned to face the Rans. He noticed something in Daniel and Iria's eyes. It was no longer fear as it had been before. Now there was gratitude and respect there, a deep thankfulness that came from their hearts. As well there was the desire to apologize for what they had done, how they had treated him. Again, he smiled, but this time it was one that let them know that such words need not be said. He knew what they felt, what they wanted to tell him, and that was enough.

"This place belongs to you three now," he stated after a moment. The surprise in their faces was enough to make him almost laugh. D tilted his head to look up at the sky, the rising sun bathing him with morning light. "Marrigan has agreed to look after you three, to make sure you have long and fruitful lives." There was a mischievous sparkle in those crimson eyes now. "After all, all the properties of the castle's lord goes to his surviving family, and you three are the last relatives of Hyrem Greymare."

They stared at him in disbelief. Obviously, they hadn't known about the blood ties their family had to the former lord of this castle. It wasn't direct descent, but Marrigan had confirmed that the Rans were from a family that Greymare had ties to. In fact, they were the only such people in the area that could legally claim such ties.

Someone else emerged from the castle. Blue skin, red hair, the seductive succubus now stepped out into the sun, for the first time in over two centuries letting herself bask in the light of day. "Oh, yes," she crooned, stretching her back. "It's been such a long time." Marrigan smiled, then noticed the looks of shock that the two sisters gave her, as well as the rather memorized expression that came from Daniel. There was a small smile on her lips at those receptions. "I think we'll all get along together quite nicely, children."

"Remember your promise," D stated quickly. He glanced to the succubus, letting her know that he hadn't forgotten. "They're off limits, especially the boy, until he's older and he comes to you of his own choice." A smirk then. "And no draining him when that happens."

The demoness feigned hurt pride. "Me?" she said with a mock gasp. "I would never think of such a thing, sire." Again, she grinned, though with regards to D, such was an invitation for him and him alone. "I assume you'll be needing to leave."

He nodded. Already was one of the cyborg horses that had been used by Tremere moving to stand alongside the hunter. D patted the steed, held the saddle, then pulled himself up to mount the beast. "I've done what I was led here to do," D stated, his eyes looking out toward the horizon. He could feel the call of his mission, the call of his fate. Though this job was over, in the end, he was not done.

The hunter glanced down to the Rans. A smile and a nod. "Take care," he said, then nudged his new mount in the side. In response, the horse galloped off across the bridge and toward the rising sun. After all the horrors that had befallen three fragile lives, in the end, they had emerged alive, well, and better off in life than they had assumed to be. They would be stronger from what they endured, and they learned the lesson that most people took for granted about the world.

The terrible rule of the vampires was dwindling. Their numbers fell with each passing day as humans learned to reach inside themselves for the courage and power to fight back. Indeed, it was the human spirit itself which gave mankind the power to live, to survive, and to become stronger than its enemies.

The shifting face upon the gauntlet rose up and smiled as it glanced up at D. "You know, that was pretty nice of you," the demon remarked while D kept his eyes on the road ahead of them. "Talked the succubus into running the castle for those kids, handing them the entire castle...you're not so bad after all."

The boy smiled and nodded. It seemed that even his ever constant demon companion could say something nice about him once in a while. Truly, it was a moment to hold onto for later when reminding himself of why he kept the gauntlet around.

A breeze caught D's coat at that moment as Varda then chuckled. "You just...dress bad."

"Shut up, Varda."


End file.
